NAGLE FINDS HIS NICHE
Munster old boy settling in with the Blues
AFTER the performance against Australia, after all the expectations and after his body and his spirit were sapped by injuries, Ian Nagle faced a choice.
On a night of putrid weather in November 2010, Munster had produced one of those matches that will live for generations in folk memory, to beat Australia in Thomond Park.
Nagle was 22 years of age and man of the match. Three years later, he had a decision to make. What he knew for certain was that rugby wasn’t, at that time, for him.
He had suffered a serious shoulder injury but there followed a succession of minor setbacks that, added up, left his body worn down.
Rugby was out, and he had to decide what to do next. He whittled it down to a choice between a return to university or a military career.
He elected for the first of those, studying for a prestigious MBA in Cambridge, playing in the Varsity match against Oxford and eventually tracking a route back to the professional game with Leinster.
The road not taken was intriguing, though. He was too old to train as an officer in the Irish army, and was advised to explore joining the British one.
‘I was looking at the marines and to potentially try selection as an officer and see where I could go from there,’ he explains.
‘It’s like saying I want to play soccer and play for Manchester United: I’m not suggesting for a moment I would have made it, but that was something I looked into.’
However, one marine told him theirs was known as the divorce unit because of the toll the job took on their personal lives. With a longterm girlfriend, Nagle decided academia was the place for him.
That a young man tipped for a long Test career was, just a few years after his breakthrough facing such an intriguing choice is indicative of the unexpected, often disappointing turns his rugby life has taken.
He misses out on a second trip to Thomond Park as a Leinster player on Tuesday due to the impenetrable selection mysteries of elite rugby, but given the schedule the province face until the end of January, he looks good to make his third appearance of the season in the coming weeks (he missed three months at the start of the season after damaging a muscle in his arm).
Seven years and one month ago, it looked like the ground would be treated to many displays of towering control from the Corkman.
‘It’s become a head-wreck at this stage as much as anything else,’ he says of that Australian match now, with a rueful laugh.
‘It was a great occasion but how would I feel about it now? It was brilliant but I suppose I played a number of games that year. The Australia game, I actually think I played OK. I think I caught the eye because it was a wet day and I had about 10 lineouts thrown on me.
‘To some supporters it might be: the Australia game was (seven) years ago and nothing since to some extent and I can totally understand that perspective,’ he says. ‘Sometimes in a rugby context it seems the last thing I’ve done is six years ago and that can be annoying but,’ he grins, ‘champagne problems.’
Nagle has a perspective that is refreshing, but then he is clearly a bright man. They didn’t invite him on to the MBA course at Cambridge because he ravaged the Australian lineout once upon a time, after all.
And it was through Cambridge he returned to full-time rugby. He had maintained contact with Munster through his sabbatical, and fondly recalls his last meeting with Anthony Foley, a catch-up over dinner.
He helped out London Irish with injury cover and Munster were not the only Irish province keeping an eye on him. Conversations with Leo Cullen eventually extended to a contract offer, and he was in blue from the start of last season.
He has been limited to 13 appearances in all over a season and a half, with Devin Toner, Scott Fardy and James Ryan all ahead of him. He is used to battling for a place, though; he emerged at Munster at a time when Paul O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan, Donnacha Ryan and Mick O’Driscoll were the established second rows. Nagle is grateful for what he learned in that environment, but also gives a sense of the desperate determination to win a starting spot that animated training sessions.
‘They were always very helpful … to a point,’ he remembers, grinning. ‘There’s a few things as a second row: like, if I was playing with Donnacha Ryan he would have always insisted he was calling the lineouts.
‘Now, I would have liked to develop as a lineout caller but he would have insisted; little things like that where they’d push their weight, but totally understandably,’ he adds quickly.
‘I would never have taken that personally. As a young guy coming in you just accept that. But off the field in terms of diet, or even on the field, helping each other out in terms of plays, they were always very helpful. That’s just the kind of culture there. It wouldn’t work otherwise.’
That Munster culture is repairing itself, and Billy Holland, a good friend and one-time housemate is providing sterling examples of the best of old Munster. His performances over the past two seasons have been often exceptional, and Nagle is not surprised in the least.
‘Billy is a very selfless player, and I think sometimes his importance in the team can be undervalued. I don’t think any of the players would ever undervalue him.
‘He’s almost like a coach on the field. His knowledge is incredible and the preparation he does. Not just because he’s a friend, but he’s a huge asset; you see that with Munster.
‘There’s a reason why he plays every game.’
That is not a luxury Nagle now enjoys, but he has been happy to recast his ambitions. Two years out of the game meant he could never return to it with the goals that sustained him as a younger player intact.
‘When I was younger, I had these goals set that I wanted to be capped at 22, I wanted to be a first-choice for Munster at 22, and so on.
‘With injuries and stuff, they came out of my control a little bit. Whereas now, the goal is to be as good as I can be. I don’t feel as if I’ve shown that yet. I don’t think I’m a million miles off it but if I can show that, then there will be some peace. I don’t think I’ve shown or reached my potential yet as a player.
‘The goal is to do that and show that, and see where that takes me.’