Mike Haley: When Munster's young lads get a chance, there's a burning desire to take it
Mike Haley believes Munster's injury crisis can bring out the best in the province's young players. Pic: Dan Clohessy/Inpho
To some, Munster are in the throes of an ill-timed injury crisis as they prepare for an away URC quarter-final at the Bulls this Saturday. Yet for Mike Haley it is another opportunity to underline what makes it such a special team to play for.
Eight seasons and 134 games into his Munster career, and a month short of his 32nd birthday, the full-back still marvels at the resilience and connectedness of his squad and the young talent ready to step into the breach whenever needed.
It is why he told the before departing for South Africa that Munster were travelling full of confidence for the task ahead, not satisfied with merely having qualified for the URC knockout rounds, even with a slew of frontline players injured and less familiar names on the team sheet.
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Munster’s final game of the regular season 12 days ago highlights his point, with Jack Crowley, Alex Nankivell and Fineen Wycherley all unable to make the kick-off against Lions having been named to start two days before. Their absence brought the total of absentees through injury into double figures for what was a must-win game to not only ensure a post-season play-off berth but also Champions Cup rugby for 2026-27.
The remedy was to call up Evan O’Connell, 22, from the bench to the starting second row and draft back-rower Ruadhan Quinn, also 22, and uncapped academy centre Gordon Wood, 21, into the replacements. All of them and many more besides in a team captained by Craig Casey for the first time at Thomond Park which won 24-17, impressed the experienced full-back.
“I think the amazing thing with Munster is like, if you looked maybe a couple of years ago, there’s names that wouldn’t have been recognised then but you look at them now and their starts for the team and they're constantly in,” Haley said.
“That's just kind of always been the mentality here, even since I've been here, eight years now. When I first came there was the likes of CJ (Stander) and Pete (O’Mahony) and all sorts, and then you have Gav (Coombes) and all sorts of lads that come through. And I think the beautiful thing with Munster is there's such a burning desire for the young lads that when they get a chance, they really take it.
“I think you see that on the weekend, you see that in the likes of like Evan O’Connell who came on, who came into the team after there was an injury and numerous other lads. You can see with the young lads how much it means for them to play for the club, as much as anybody, but, you know, especially the homegrown lads, they'll fight tooth and nail to do as well as they can for the team.
“It's a next man up mentality and we don't want to drop that standard. There's a lot of pressure when you get in, but it's your opportunity to show what you can do.
“A rugby team is a finely oiled machine, but there's movement in that for you to be able to flourish as an individual player in that. And I think what they do in the backroom staff and the academy coaches and how they prepare the lads for them to step in is brilliant. Because, you know, you look at the likes of (Brian) Gleeson coming through and Ed and Sean Edogbo, they're fantastic players and they're churning them out every year.
“And how many years have we been sat here saying injury crisis, Munster? But these young lads, they come through and they always do. And I think they always will because they've got that burning desire to play really well for Munster and that's probably growing up from a young age.”
Munster’s ability to adapt to changing circumstances on the fly at the business end of the season with the pressure to qualify rising as the casualty list increases in tandem is a point of pride for Haley.
“I think you'd be lying to yourself if you think you're going to go through a whole year and not have these challenges or moments that are going to really test your resilience. And I think if there's one thing we are, we're resilient.
“I'll back that to the hilt. Lads will really go to war for each other and get behind each other and the Lions game was a perfect example of where you lose four or five starters through the week but it's next man up and you look at the lads who stepped into the shoes, they did unbelievable jobs. And they're now knocking on the door being like, ‘I'm the starter now, make sure I'm playing every week’.
“That's what you want. When you have a team that's fighting to win things, you need a squad that has depth, that has lads pushing, with 15 on 15 on the training pitch, that's driving each other to be better and making sure you can't take your foot off the pedal, otherwise somebody else will step in there and you don't want that to happen.”
Haley is under no illusions about the challenges lying in wait for Munster on Saturday, yet in his view they also make it a contest to savour.
“These are the games you come to Munster for, to play knockout rugby and really test yourself. And when I'm older, 10 years down the line and I'm retired, I'm hoping these are the games I'll look back on fondly and I'll chat to some of the lads that were in the changing room with you and you'd be like, ‘do you remember that game?’
“And that's the thought behind just enjoying the moment, like trying to live in this moment now. We're confident, not in a false way but in the respect that we've put in really hard work over Monday, last Thursday and Friday. We have a self-belief, just like Bulls will have, but we've planned out this week so we know what it looks like. We've also spoken about if this happens or that happens, and different variations of the plan.
“We're confident that we're going to go over there and be able to put a good showing of ourselves on. And to be honest, we just want to be in a battle.”
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