"I was mad into soccer" – Munster wing Shane Daly reveals what started his late journey into rugby

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Shane Daly has become a key player for Munster in recent seasons, having been named the URC Ironman last year, racking up more minutes in the championship than any other player.He started all 18 regular season games for the province, totalling up an astonishing run of 1,430 minutes, which makes it even harder to believe when you discover that he didn't start properly playing rugby until his late teens.

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"I'd a weird enough journey into it," Daly says. "I only started playing when I was in secondary school. I would have done a handful of sessions with Highfield RFC, which would be my family club.

"They were keen to get me in there but I was mad into the soccer and the Gaelic football from a young age, so I didn't really have time to play rugby, but when I went to a rugby school (Presentation Brothers College) it's kind of something that you kind of get drawn into."

Daly quickly excelled at the sport and credits one of his former coaches, Paul Barr, as the first person to help him fully understand and fall in love with the game.

"The first coach that made me love the game and understand the game was Paul Barr. “The Munster man added. "But that wasn't until the Senior Cup cycle, so 5th year really was when I left the soccer behind and rugby was my only sport from there on.

"The way that Paul saw the game, and the way that he wanted it to be played, was everything that I liked about it. I still have things that he taught me that I produce in games. Or things I think about that he taught me to think about.

"He was a huge influence on me and it was just such an expansive way of playing. It was like a Southern Hemisphere style and he kind of gave me a complete free licence to do what I wanted."

Daly was given an opportunity to play Sevens for Ireland not long after leaving school while still finding his feet in the Munster Academy.

He was part of a relaunched programme, playing in a side that included the likes of Hugo Keenan, Jimmy O'Brien, and Will Connors, and he credits it for helping his development as a player.

"We all saw the benefits of it very quickly," Daly said. “We were quite young. We were one year out of school, but we hadn’t really got a look in at the provinces yet. So it gave us time to accelerate our development.

"Both sides of the ball, you learn so much, you’re kind of forced to learn like there’s no provincial level of sevens. You’re straight into international. You’re playing against Fiji, South Africa, New Zealand. These teams, like some of your first games, could be against those teams!

"We got a lot of experience out of it and you can see from the players I’ve mentioned how well they’ve gone on to develop their 15’s game and you can see that they were sevens players in the way they play, especially the likes of Hugo and Jimmy – the touches they get on the ball, defensively they're very strong as well."

Now a seasoned professional at Munster and an Ireland international, Daly is one of the top stars in the BKT URC, but he'll never forget where he came from as we celebrate Origin Round in the championship across Rounds 11 & 12.

"It's massive," Daly said when asked about the importance of remembering our Origins. “Players look for their ‘why’ and what motivates them. You never forget the coaches that you had, the people that brought you to training, my parents that gave so much for me to even play the game.

"That’s the reason that you do it. And when you actually think back to that, it’s the Origin that you’re always kind of playing for, and it’s those people who want to make proud.

"You’ll always remember that everyone that’s coached you along the way has such a pride in you as well, and you want to make them proud in return. I think it just becomes a 'why' for players and I think that's such a powerful thing.

"Sometimes it can be difficult to kind of get out of your own head and times can get difficult, especially periods in every season where things are challenging and you’ve got to remember why you’re doing it – and the Origin story is exactly that. So it’s something that I think about a lot."

Quotes provided by URC Media

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