The Irish sporting circle is so small that Munster’s Kiwi centre Alex Nankivell and Tyrone’s All-Ireland winner Conor Meyler have struck up an unlikely friendship.
A pre-season trip to Portugal, which naturally included plenty of golf, provided Nankivell with an insight into the dedication of Gaelic football and hurling players. Although Meyler was sidelined with a knee injury, his savage work-rate in his rehab took the New Zealander by surprise.
A group of Munster players were due to spend some time at The Campus sports complex in Quinta do Lago, but in the end it was just Nankivell, Meyler and Jack Crowley, who hadn’t long returned from Ireland’s tour to South Africa.
“Conor is doing a master’s and had spent a bit of time in the [Munster] building and we got to know him quite well,” Nankivell explains.
“He came down a few times, he’s good mates with one of our physios and then he would catch up and he’s obviously mad into training, so he had a bit of time too, so we made it work.
“Those footballers train… ah, it’s too much for me to be fair.”
Meyler recently admitted he will likely require a knee replacement some day in the future, but the 30-year-old’s commitment to the cause is something that struck a chord with Nankivell, whose abrasive nature chimes well with the Tyrone man.
“I was more surprised by how driven [he is], like he’s so driven, whether it be rehab or… like he just had knee surgery so he couldn’t do a lot of on-feet stuff, but the amount of stuff he does.
“We’d be finished the day, done our training in the morning and we’d be doing something and then he’d be like, ‘Oh lads, I need to go back to the Campus and do a bit more rehab’.
“It was crazy but I said that to him, ‘maybe you need to get the balance right a bit more because us rugby players, we’re a bit more on the chill side than that.’”
Nankivell, whose two-year contract extension with Munster was confirmed earlier this week, has become a crowd favourite at Thomond Park.
Now in his second season with the province since joining from the Chiefs, for all that the 28-year-old is relishing his time in Limerick, he hasn’t yet been to a hurling match.
“I haven’t, no. I have to. I’ve got a Limerick jersey and at some stage I’ll definitely put the jersey on with pride,” he laughs.
“I’ve watched more hurling. I like watching hurling, just the speed of it and I guess the appreciation for how fast the ball is travelling because I used to play cricket back home in New Zealand and had to stop because I was scared of the fast ball. Like that thing’s moving.”
Nankivell did manage to get to New Zealand’s win over Ireland in Dublin at the start of last month, which meant he got to catch up with some old friends.
“A lot of the Tasman boys, I would be close with because we started at the Tasman Mako together — Will Jordan and David Havili, those boys,” Nankivell says.
“I actually went and saw Dave midweek, went for dinner with him and then got to catch up with him after the game.
“It was cool to see them. Obviously they were pretty stoked with the victory they had that night. It’s always nice seeing familiar faces. It makes it a bit easier being so far from home when you see people that you’ve known for such a long time and, just like you guys over here, the craic is always the same. That was good.”
Tyrone’s Conor Meyler is recovering from a knee injury
Nankivell is hoping to catch up with another former team-mate after Munster’s Champions Cup opener against Stade Francais at Thomond Park on Saturday evening.
“When I moved up to the Chiefs at the end of 2016, Brad Weber was there the whole time,” Nankivell says of the Stade scrum-half.
“He’s always played for the Chiefs, so, yeah, he’s Chiefs royalty. He’s a great man, Brad, and he’s an awesome player. So we’re going to have to respect that.
“It’s similar to catching up with the All Blacks boys, like you’re seeing a guy that you know so well and played with for so many years, just to see how he’s getting on in his journey and we’re kind of in a similar position. We’re so far away from our support networks doing a similar thing so it’s nice to be able to talk and share our journeys.
“It was the same last year when we played Toulon, just catching up with Leicester Fainga’anuku. It’s always nice but then sometimes it makes you miss home a little bit more, but that’s all right.”
Nankivell lives with his Munster team-mates Alex Kendellen and Paddy Patterson and, having signed up for at least another couple of seasons, the midfielder is determined to continue enjoying life, in terms of his rugby and his time in Limerick.
“It’s the people really,” he adds. “Obviously the rugby is important, but probably when I look back at it in 10 years’ time, there’ll be a few rugby memories and then a lot of memories around relationships and the people that kind of helped me and I’ve spent a lot of time with.
“The first few months, the people here at Munster, the boys, the management and then I guess, like the community of Munster was just amazing to me. The amount of messages I got, it was kind of overwhelming, but I guess credit to the Irish people, they’re very hospitable and make you feel welcome. It’s worked out really well.”