For a player who marked his reappearance in red with three clean breaks and two tries in a minute shift off the bench, it sounds a touch out of kilter to hear JJ Hanrahan regard his return to Munster colours in terms of a gradual reintroduction. More of a crash, bang, wallop than baby steps as the year-old fly-half slotted in at full-back against Cardiff Blues last Saturday for his first action since re-signing from Northampton Saints during the summer.
That Hanrahan had upped sticks two years ago and left his native province for the English Premiership had been both a shock and a disappointment to many, but his homecoming was just the opposite. The Kerry man insisted in conversation with the Irish Examiner this week, however, that rejoining Munster was never something he took for granted. Nor is he expecting to stroll back into a Munster backline in which the battle for a jersey has never appeared so competitive. Yet for all obstacles posed by selection rivals, coming home was the obvious choice for Hanrahan.
It was a great experience to head away over there to England and play in Northampton and in the Premiership. I knew it was only going to be down to my performances and how I was playing, if I was getting better and was that going to happen.
It was nothing to do with selection. You could see the influence that Eddie Jones had, kind of trickling down through all the English clubs and into Northampton so to be around those guys was just an unbelievable learning experience.
The kid that left Munster after the PRO12 final defeat to Glasgow in Belfast, when he came on as a sub for starting fly-half Ian Keatley, has noticed some changes himself, and not just the bricks and mortar of the High Performance Centre, which sprang up on the University of Limerick campus in his absence.
This is going to be a bit strange to explain because a lot of the stuff is the same but the atmosphere is different. Gaelic Games. Home energy upgrades are now more important than ever. Commenting on The Irish Times has changed. To comment you must now be an Irish Times subscriber. The account details entered are not currently associated with an Irish Times subscription. Please subscribe to sign in to comment. You should receive instructions for resetting your password.
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Your Comments. Hanrahan had packed his bags before and headed to Northampton for a couple of seasons and while there are few certainties in professional rugby, the plan was to remain with his native province and help them end their trophy famine. Then the Munster stuff happened. Then Clermont came through around March time with an offer.
Then we made the decision. From around March I knew my plan going forward. Hanrahan, who made his Munster debut in , played games for them before he headed for the middle of France last summer and the city where the Michelin corporation was founded by two brothers in He has settled in quickly and has been busy on and off the field.
He opted to study geography rather than French when he was in Rockwell College and that has meant plenty of language lessons over the past few months. Issued every Friday morning. Enter email address This field is required Sign Up. In the morning before I head in, the Audible learning, a fella called Paul Noble, he is very good online. There are about six or seven foreigners in the squad but most things are done in French.
They speak at a high level. The foreigners who have been there for over a year or two, you are expected to speak French. I did about 10 lessons over Zoom before I came over. It kind of gave me a bit of a base. I had three months to prep for it.
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