It’s hard to credit really. Off the pitch, Alex Nankivell is one of the most easy-going, engaging and good humoured players around. Yet he used to cross that white line and change character, so much so that his Munster team-mates quickly labelled him “Cranks”.
By his own admittance, his demanding on-field nature and critiques of team-mates only served to frustrate and distract him.
“So before last season, I had a real deep dive into why I’m like that,” he freely admits. “I’m quite self-aware and when I get on the pitch, I’m like one person, and when I’m off the pitch, I’m like another person. And when I’m off the pitch, I’m like, ‘why am I such a prick?’
Leinster's RDS bump and Munster's outhalf crisis
“I looked a bit deeper than just what I was doing and looked at why I was doing it. Figuring that out helped me last year, and I think just continuing to grow that so I can completely iron that out, and the influence it has on the people around you is huge.”
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Being calmer and more encouraging provokes better responses, especially in a relatively young team.
“You’ve got to be able to adapt and change how you deal with people. I think it paid dividends. I felt like last year was probably one of my best seasons I’ve had as a professional. I guess that’s the reward you get for focusing on these things.”
Munster’s Player of the Season and the Supporters Player of the Season for 2025-26, Nankivell was then in the Barbarians’ team that played the Springboks in Cape Town and Wales in Cardiff last June.
He describes the experience as “unreal”, “amazing” and “just so cool”, playing with a rich variety of global stars, some of whom he knew, most of whom he hadn’t met before but grew to know, such as Castres’ Uruguayan scrumhalf Santiago Arata.
“I guess the Barbarians brand is the purity of rugby you used to play when you’re a young fellah. It wasn’t too much thinking. It was just a lot of action.”
Defeats by 80-31 to the Boks and 33-31 to Wales confirms there were just “a few principles around defence” admits Nankivell, adding: “The poor forwards only had a week to figure out how to defend the maul and then the same with the scrum.”
He also partnered the brilliant Virimi Vakatawa. “It was a bit of a pinch-me moment playing with someone that I’d watched on TV. I was so impressed with how he played the game and what he could do and the impact he could have on his team-mates and putting them into space and making them look good.”
Summer holidays featured “a real balanced trip” to Ibiza and “trips to west Cork and Crookhaven” before returning to preseason refreshed.
The collective disappointments of last season will, he says, fuel this season.
“It’s not just about the team that goes out: it’s about this whole province, and we understand that. And we’ve got the best supporters in the world, so we want to do it for all of us, not just us an immediate rugby team.”
The last three of Nankivell’s seven seasons with the Chiefs overlapped with Clayton McMillan’s time as head coach. Interestingly, he felt McMillan wasn’t of a mind to “just completely change everything” last season.
“But you can kind of see him layer stuff last year and it’s definitely become more of an emphasis. Say, for example, our basic standards around the building. This year, we’ve made a conscious habit to make sure that those are high and they’re consistently high. How we behave as players and as a group at Munster, because we believe those small things will then translate on to our habits on the field.
“You can see him starting to implement a few things over the preseason that I knew he would have liked to do probably a bit earlier, but the coaches coming in like Jimmy [Duffy] and JP [Jared Payne], have been an awesome addition, and the guys that have stayed on, Leams [Denis Leamy] and Mossy [Lawlor], they’ve all just rowed in behind each other.”
“There’ll be a few differences, particularly in the attack,” adds Nankivell. “It’s refreshing as well to be playing a little bit differently from how we have in the past. That challenges the players to learn new detail or new structure and get a new understanding for a different shape.”
He admits to “being a little bit in awe” of the two academy outhalves, Tom Wood and Charlie O’Shea. A number 10 in his formative years, Nankivell reckons he kicked the ball three times last season and wants to rekindle some of his own kicking game, as well as improving his communications skills.
“I wish, when I was that age, I had the confidence of Tom and Charlie because if I did I probably would have still used it [kicking] throughout my career.”
Entering his fourth season with Munster, were he to sign another extension that would make him Irish qualified in a year’s time.
He prefers to think “in the present” but admits international rugby is the pinnacle.
“I’ve had dreams to play for the All Blacks, and when I came over I didn’t think the opportunity would present itself to become Irish-qualified.
“I would love to stay here at Munster. That’s the ultimate. Then the international stuff is the cherry on top because staying at Munster means I’ll qualify to play Ireland, and playing international is the dream. So, it kind of works in tandem, really.”
