'We could do without some of the drama' but Niall Scannell just focussed on winning end to Munster career

Scannell, 34, will leave the province in the grips of drama on and off the field.

END IN SIGHT: Munster's Niall Scannell in training. Pic: ©INPHO/Tom O’Hanlon.

When you have spent as much time as Niall Scannell has as a Munster player, you learn to differentiate between the drama you can control and the stuff you really have to let go.

The former Ireland hooker is about to leave that kind of decision-making behind after 15 years on the books, 13 seasons with the senior squad and 210 appearances for his home province, plus 20 Test caps. 

Saturday’s URC Round 18 clash with the Lions will be cap number 211 and is very likely to be his final game at Thomond Park, with an away draw for the play-off quarter-finals potentially the next fixture, if victory can be secured on home turf.

Scannell, 34, will leave in the grips of drama on and off the field. Some of it is beyond his pay grade with the Roger Randle controversy prompting an Independent Governance and Organisational Review and a limited but impactful number of redundancies in the works, but there plenty within the remit of the playing squad.

“I do just feel that it's a great club. When I come in here, I've always felt welcome here, happy here. I feel like I'd like to do the same for other lads,” the Corkman said this week ahead of his start against the Lions.

“I just think sometimes certain factors outside of our control, some of them definitely within our control, admittedly, happen at a kind of higher level than what's in the HPC here.

“There can be a perception out there that things are all over the shop nearly. But it hasn't affected our training weeks, or it hasn't affected our environment. So, I just feel sometimes there can be a portrayal that everything's going badly.

“But like any business, that's one section of the business that is looking through a review process now and they'll have a good, robust look into that, I assume. But it's not really the part of the business I’m in. Like, the results they chase and strive for aren't the same we do.

“I'm probably learning as I get older that obviously all results on the pitch can massively transfer to their targets around things like revenue and stuff. But at the end of the day, it’s about going out winning games, making quarter-finals, potentially winning leagues, that all helps. So that's kind of just what I try to concentrate on.

“From a playing side, I think we could do without some of the drama. We’re massively disappointed with what we produced last week (at Connacht) and what could have made it a very different weekend for us this weekend.

“So, we know we've put ourselves in a tough scenario now again, like we love to do. So, we've just got to come out swinging now and deliver at the weekend.”

Whatever happens, the 2023 URC Grand Final winner’s medal is just one of Scannell’s many career highlights, while sharing much of the journey with brother Rory, 20 months his junior and now with Ealing Trailfinders, made it even more special.

“There’s been seasons like the Rassie (Erasmus, 2017-18) where… the way we were playing was great, those standards. But then even in Johan (van Graan)'s time, look at some of the results, like when we had like Rory and Sammy Arnold going up against Basteraud and Nonu and we beat Toulon at home and stuff like that.

“I'm sure they're the ones that I’ll look back on in a few years, probably, and go, ‘God, I can't believe we did that’. Even La Rochelle last year, you know, like you're coming against huge, like European giants with huge budgets, unbelievable class. They're the ones I'll find kind of special. And with Ireland, the (2019) World Cup.”

Scannell said his chief reason for bowing out now was “we had a second kid!” Indeed, aside from his intention to enter the world of financial services, it is wife Maeve and their two young sons for whom he is retiring.

“I just need to switch off and enjoy the kids for a few months. There's definitely nothing concrete at the moment. I feel like I've done things in education over the years that I've kind of tried my best to protect myself for this moment. So, I feel like there's no need to panic now.

“That's important, too, for me. Like, I do have a good support network. We live in Cork, you know. My parents are in Cork. I've been saying this since Christmas, but now I really have to enjoy the last few weeks.”

But he added: “Any event over the summer that's going, I'll take it. But it's huge for Maeve as well. I feel like there's just been so long now, everything has just been a stress. You don't have weekends and stuff. I do think maybe in a year or so I'll get a bit of an itch to go back and do something in rugby, but that’s my biggest draw at the moment, around coaching.

“I've had a few chats from different clubs in the AIL about doing roles coaching-wise and stuff, but my weekends are just too valuable. I just haven't had them now for 16 years. So, I just feel like I can't sign up to that again now.

“I'm just looking forward to a few weekends, a few early mornings on Saturdays on the golf course. It's just not worth the weekends. I think I need to give a bit more time to the family now. The Douglas market on Saturday and the golf course will do me now for a while.”