Why playing for Munster was written in the stars for new recruit Ben O'Donovan

O'Donovan was born in Dublin, and grew up in New Zealand, but his family has roots in Cork. Growing up on the other side of the world, he would often wear a Munster jersey

STURDY: Ben O'Donovan's bigger build offers a different option to the other scrum-halves at Munster. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

From family holidays in Timoleague to a game shaped by Conor Murray, you might say Munster Rugby was written in the stars for new academy recruit Ben O’Donovan.

It sounds like a typical upbringing for a young man of the province but the 21-year-old had to travel 19,000 kilometres to fulfil what he hopes will be his destiny, to wear the red number nine jersey for a long time to come.

The former New Zealand Under-20 half-back is set for his second senior appearance for Munster against Benetton, a potential URC debut as cover for Craig Casey in Italy on Saturday afternoon as he adjusts to life on the other side of the world from his native Christchurch.

O’Donovan is Dublin-born, with Irish lineage through both parents, a grandfather on his New Zealand-born father Daniel’s side, and his mother Ruth from Dublin, and his sturdy frame represents a point of difference from the rest of the current crop of Munster number nines, which aside from his rugby talent is why head coach Clayton McMillan was so keen to bring him from the Crusaders academy a couple of months ago.

Fellow Kiwi, Munster centre Alex Nankivell compared O’Donovan a couple of weeks ago ahead of his Challenge Cup debut as a replacement at Exeter Chiefs, as reminding him of Crusaders nine Noah Hotham but it was back at his childhood club Linwood, in Christchurch, that the initial comparison with Munster legend Murray arose. To a boy with a Munster jersey thrust on his back by his dad from an early age, that was music to O’Donovan’s ears, though his role models also include All Blacks half-back Cam Roigaard and the aforementioned Hotham.

Indeed, as O’Donovan explained to the Irish Examiner earlier this week, Hotham’s ascendancy into the Crusaders line-up alongside mid-twentysomethings Kyle Preston and Louie Chapman, represented something of a logjam for the academy half-back. With a university degree completed, the time was right for a move and Munster was a perfect destination given his family roots.

“The Crusaders had some good half-backs ahead of me, all about 25, 26,” he said. “So I could wait around there, bide my time (but) I probably won't get any contracts, because they were all signed to the end of 2028.

“And then I guess, the opportunity to come over here…” 

O’Donovan was in South Africa at the 2024 Under-20 World Cup with the All Blacks, who defeated Ireland in the third-place play-off. He came off the bench in the 38-21 victory, with future Munster academy scrum-half Jake O’Riordan his opposite number and later met the IRFU’s head of elite player pathway Peter Smyth, who put the wheels in motion for what would become a week’s visit to Munster’s High Performance Centre at the University of Limerick.

Ben O'Donovan at Munster training in Limerick this week. Pic: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy

“I had a good chat with Clayton when I was over here for that week and he said there were some good opportunities to be involved and ‘we'd love to have you over here’.

“I was something kind of different to the other half-backs, I guess. I'm just a bit of a bigger build compared to them. So he said I offered ‘something different that we don't have’.

“That was good, hearing that from the top dog himself, nice to hear. And then, besides the rugby part, I was at that kind of stage where I kind of wanted to move away from home. Like, if I wasn't playing rugby and I'd finished my degree, I was probably going, I'd probably be travelling anyway.

“So I guess I get a little bit of the best of both worlds. I could come over here and experience being a full-time athlete, which I wanted to do since I was a boy. And also I get to travel and, yeah, see parts of the world that I haven't been to.

"And like this week with Italy and I’d only been to England once so that Exeter match. All that stuff is quite cool.” 

The Munster scrum-half is not the first O’Donovan to have made the trip from New Zealand to Ireland to play rugby. Dad Daniel used his Irish passport as a young man to pitch up in Dublin and turn out for Suttonians and it was during that time he met Ben’s mum Ruth.

“He was over here for like 10-plus years, living in Dublin, and in Ashbourne in Meath. So I got grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins, they all live up in Dublin. Me and my younger sister were both born in Dublin, then we moved over to New Zealand when I was four.

“We’ve been back in 2011, 2016, and 2018 and we did a bit of traveling, like we spent a week in Galway. We actually went down to Timoleague and Clonakilty and around where the O'Donovan side comes from, which was cool. So a bit of travel and time seeing grandparents and cousins.

“I was even looking back, my mum had a photo she sent me the other day. And it's like me in a Munster jersey. It was quite funny because I remember I'd wear the Munster jersey and Mum and Dad, like obviously Mum's Leinster, but then Dad was O'Donovan.

“Even though he had never spent time in Munster, he was just like, ‘you know, you're a Munster man’. So then I was leaning towards Dad. I'd wear the Munster jersey and that would get Mum angry. But it's funny how things have kind of worked out the way they have.” 

If O’Donovan gets his wish, there will be a Munster jersey on his back for some time to come, way beyond the initial 18-month contract he signed earlier this year. Asked for his objectives, he said: “I guess for myself just to settle for the rest of the season, just to set the team up and to succeed in the URC and try to go as deep as we possibly can.

“And then I guess the personal goal is just to hopefully see myself as a long-term half-back here within the club. That obviously is the most ideal thing for myself. And then anything that comes after that is a bonus.”