By the time Calvin Nash touched down in the corner for Ireland’s third try he was the 11th Irish player to join the move. For the previous 72 seconds Ireland had been kneading and rolling France, like a piece of dough. Bundee Aki carried three times, Peter O’Mahony twice, Joe McCarthy twice, Robbie Henshaw twice; Jamison Gibson Park had eight touches, each one a heartbeat.
Nash had no business leaving his wing. He was busy waiting. “I remember just thinking, ‘Please, can I get the ball here? Please. Please. Please.’ It was unreal from everyone else. I suppose I was just standing there.”
It had been a long week. Before the World Cup, Nash had been given a chance in the warm-up game against Italy because his performances with Munster last season had demanded it. But it felt like they were honouring a duty to a form player rather than putting down roots on a future together. Ireland knew their back three, and the backup for the back three. Your application is on file. Thanks.
Last week, though, felt different. Their needs were more aligned, suddenly. Ireland had a hole on the wing. Jordan Larmour and Jacob Stockdale had long ago completed a full arc on their international careers and were trying to start again. Nash was a blank page. That was attractive.
For days in the build-up his nerves played hell with him. He texted Keith Earls at the start of the week, just to connect with somebody who would understand the torment he was feeling. In his career, Earls had been through the wringer a million times. “‘Man, I’m up the walls here,’” Nash wrote in the message. “He just said, ‘You need to enjoy it. I wish I enjoyed it more.’”
After the captain’s run on Thursday Andy Farrell pulled him aside. The Ireland coach is a huge man who played a hard game in his day, but time and again stories about his soft skills emerge from camp. He could tell that Nash was suffering. The intervention was short and soothing.
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“It opened up my eyes to how good Faz [Andy Farrell] is with people, you know, looking out to see what way they are. He was like, ‘You’ve been quiet this week.’ And I was like, ‘How has he spotted this?’
“I had a good chat with him. He just said, ‘What are you going to do in attack? What are you going to do in defence? That kind of way. I had all the answers. So he was like, ‘There you go, there’s all the answers. Just be yourself.’ To be honest, that made me feel way better. Faz says with great pressure comes massive privilege as well. It’s a great quote.
“I had a good chat with Gary [Keegan] as well, the psychologist, last night [Thursday] and he kind of reiterated what Faz [Andy Farrell] was saying to me, ‘Just be yourself. It’s not as if you just appeared in this Irish jersey, you’ve almost won it,’ like, that kind of way. I think that really put my mind at ease.”
Nash is 26 now. For a long time a night like Friday was hidden in the clouds. Seven years after he made his first appearance for Munster, last season was the first in which he made more than 10 appearances. Injury was part of it, but it was more than that: he felt stuck. Simon Zebo said in a mischievous tweet that Nash was thinking about retiring only a couple of years ago.
“Myself and Zeebs were injured and I was like, ‘Man, what am I doing?’ I just felt like I was in a rut – couldn’t get out of it.”
The arrival of Mike Prendergast as Munster’s attack coach, at the beginning of last season, was a catalyst for change. Nash was the prime of his career. There were things he needed to do better.
“I learned a lot from Prendie. It wasn’t smooth sailing at the start. I still had a good bit to learn. The coaches in Munster massively backed me. My scanning in open field in attack has got a lot better. That opens up opportunities for me to get on the ball but also help the attack of the team as well. That was a massive work-on for me rather than just staying on my wing.”
On Friday night Nash carried the ball for more metres, 76, than any other player on the field. Ireland’s numerical advantage created space on the edges as the game wore on, but in the first half Nash turned up for a carry in the middle of the field, and his kick returns were strong. The game didn’t wash over him, he was part of the flow.
The try was different. It was his job to wait. As soon as he touched down he jumped up and arranged his arms in a triangle shape. An in-joke. Conor Murray and Jack Conan had christened him Triangle Head, inspired by the cartoon characters Phineas and Ferb. Part of every rugby camp is a playground for grown-ups.
Nash, though, must have planned the celebration. He must have been thinking about scoring. After the clouds parted.
