Hodnett happy to wing it and carry hard for the Munster cause

After racking up a four-try haul up front and out wide, Hodnett said "I’ve been on the wing a few times before, so I suppose I’m kind of half used to it"

Mon, 27 Apr, 2026 - 01:05

Simon Lewis

John Hodnett had one job to do when injuries forced the Munster flanker to switch positions and move to the right wing – just carry hard.

He had already achieved that in his starting position with a couple of first-half tries as Munster finally sparked to life in their must-win URC derby with Ulster at Thomond Park on Saturday. As a winger covering for the injured Calvin Nash he added two more and did the stricken Ireland international proud with his finishing in a man of the match performance as Munster ran out 41-14 victors.

Hodnett had not even been the first-choice cover for Nash, centre Alex Nankivell initially moved to the edge in a familiar adaptation to the backline when a hamstring injury added to the wing’s miserable run of luck this season. Yet when a second midfielder, Tom Farrell, sustained a shoulder injury just after half-time, Munster had already deployed their outside back replacement Dan Kelly to fill the vacuum created by Nankivell’s switch, leaving back-rower Alex Kendellen to displace Hodnett in the pack and send the West Cork openside to the wing.

The man of the match could not recall scoring four tries in a game before, though he was struggling to rack his memories of his under-eights playing career, but he explained his mindset on the move and praised his back-three partners Shane Daly and Andrew Smith for their support.

“I’ve been on the wing a few times before, so I suppose I’m kind of half used to it," he said afterwards. "In fairness to Daly and Smithy, they were very good to just chat to me during the game and keep me ticking, so it wasn’t the worst. I had good comms from the lads and just trying to work hard, really.”

The mantra was to carry hard when he got the ball, “100 per cent”.

“I’m not going to do anything crazy out there. I haven’t played there too much, so more just when I’ve got my hands on the ball, try to make a few metres and get the ball back, and just defensively then, trying to make my reads and stuff, make hits.”

It took something special to eclipse the impact Kendellen made off the bench, claiming a hat-trick of tries as the flankers contributed all seven tries between them. Yet Hodnett’s third was the pick of Munster’s five scores, sparked by JJ Hanrahan’s high ball across the field, regathered by Smith and moved onto Kelly.

From there Craig Casey set his team-mates into attack with a sumptuous pass outside sent from behind his back to Tom Ahern, and then onto Gavin Coombes who supplied the final assist to the auxiliary wing with a back of the hand pass to the edge. Hodnett still had work to do down the right flank but he brushed off a couple of Ulster tackles to score in the corner, advancing Munster’s lead to 29-7.

It was the score that delighted McMillan, the head coach using it as shining example of what his team is capable of producing if they “feel the play” instead of trying to force it.

“The most pleasing try for me was one where in the second half we exited and then we lost our way a little bit. And then JJ went to a contestable kick across the other side of the field, which we managed to regather," he said.

“That's a pressure cycle. If you get it slightly wrong, you end up on the wrong side of that pressure cycle. And we made a good decision then to go to a contestable kick. We did all the right things around winning the scraps and then feeling the play instead of forcing it. And we ended up a couple of days later scoring a nice try that created a little bit of breathing space.

“So more of that was required.”