David Shanahan on why he’s staying cool at Ulster
ULSTER scrum-half David Shanahan says he’s not putting pressure on himself to perform after he played a starring role in the 39-39 draw with the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.
The diminuitive half-back made only his second start in 20 months for the province in the draw, and he stood out by scoring two tries in the absence of John Cooney.
Opportunities have been limited for Shanahan, a graduate of the Ulster Academy, with Cooney performing so well, but when given the chance on Friday he took it with both hands.
And the 25-year old says it’s all down to him maintaining a calm persona and not treating it as a do-or-die moment.
“I can see why you might think (you have to perform) if you’re not getting many starts or much game time, you need to do well, but I don’t think that mindset is very healthy and it’s not going to push towards a good performance,” Shanahan insists.
“I just try to stay relaxed and control what I can control really.
“With John Cooney playing as well as he is, opportunities — starts in particular — don’t come around as much as I’d like them to.
“I try to play the same game whenever I can because that’s what I do well, I like to bring tempo to the game, I pass the ball well.
“When you’re coming off the bench in the last 10 minutes you try to bring that extra energy, but to be honest, I just try to play the same game whether I start or come off the bench.”
It was a composed and strong performance from the Belvedere College product on Friday night, with his brace key in helping Ulster rescue three points.
His perfect support lines off breaks from Darren Cave sent him over for the pair of scores, with Shanahan praising former British and Irish Lions scrumhalf, and now Ulster backs coach, Dwayne Peel for his input.
“You can’t call yourself a good nine if you don’t run support lines!” Shanahan laughs.
“Dwayne Peel puts a lot of pressure on us to run those lines, and John Cooney has done a great job of it as well.
“I was lucky enough to feed off some nice play from Darren Cave twice tonight and Johnny Stewart got himself one as well.
“It’s something within our scrum-half group in our squad that we pride ourselves on.”
With the squad now back this side of the equator after their South African mini-tour, it’s time to reflect on what has been a mixed sojourn to the southern hemisphere.
While seven points and maintaining their unbeaten start to the season looks good on the face of it, Shanahan echoed the thoughts of head coach Dan McFarland in that the group as a whole weren’t happy with a win and a draw.
Although it beat Glasgow’s six points from their two games — they defeated the Cheetahs but then lost to the Kings — Shanahan admits there’s a disappointment within the squad that they’re not heading home with two wins.
“Personally I’m happy enough (with how I played), I got a good bit of game time last week. I was probably a bit rusty because I hadn’t played in a few weeks but I was happy enough with how I went, and (on Friday night) I
was happy to get the start again. Pretty handy picking up two tries off some good play, so happy enough,” he said.
“As a squad, I think coming away with seven points is decent, although we would have liked to come away with eight, or possibly even 10.
“But it’s been a great bonding experience, you spend a lot of time together and you get to know guys who you wouldn’t speak to as much if you were back in Belfast because you’re with them all day every day. So I think it’s been good for that.”
And the Dubliner believes that there’s still plenty more to come from this side despite their good start to the campaign.
“I’m not going to say there’s nobody who could deal with us, but I think we’re as good as any team in this league when we can put teams through phases,” Shanahan says confidently.
“I think that’s a good work on for us really.”