Safety first but Daly determined to string Munster run together
At pic: This Brady Inpho/ben Week Munster Shane Ul Daly In Training
Shane Daly was entirely comfortable at having to miss the trip to Castres last weekend following a head knock on his 100th Munster appearance but now he is eager to finally get his season up and running with a consistent run in the province’s back three.
The Corkman will return on the left wing when the Reds face Ulster in Belfast on Friday, a day after his 28th birthday and a fortnight after scoring a special try at Thomond Park against Stade Francais.
So good was the solo effort, conjured from two deft kicks over defenders heads, that eyes were raised when Daly was not named in the squad travelling to France six days later but he said: “They want what's best for the squad and for me, it was probably the safest option as well. I took a bad knock to the head at the end of the Stade game.
“I had to actually leave the field with that so it ended my night, so I didn't get to walk around the pitch afterwards, I was in doing two HIAs.
“Look, that rattled me. I was struggling a bit with that, just getting headaches while training but I didn't fail the HIA so I hadn't technically been concussed. But it was probably the safest thing to do to not be involved as well.
“My safety is something I'm not going to complain about it if they’re leaving me out. I'm happy if it's the best thing for me and they make those calls.”
For a player who completed the most minutes of any Munster player in each of the last two seasons and was named URC Ironman for 2023-24, the current campaign has been a stop start affair following injuries against both Zebre and the Stormers during the first six weeks.
“I feel like I haven't got consistent game time through injury this year, so I'm just looking forward to getting that match fitness back and getting that feel of just playing every week. It's the best place to be. I love playing for this team. So the more I can do that the better it is for me.” Munster certainly got the best of Daly last time out, his try against Stade reminding him of playing soccer with Cork’s College Corinthians.
“It brings me back to the soccer days. I played underage. I played all the way up to sixth year in Pres, so even when I was playing Senior Cup I was still playing the odd game for Corinthians. I wasn’t training or anything, I just love soccer, and struggled to let it go and my body allowed me to do it at that age.
“So I would always try things like that in training, but in a game, a European game in Thomond Park, I wouldn't always back myself to do it.
“It was the way it presented itself. I felt a bit isolated, that if I dove on the ball to get it back, we might have been turned over at the breakdown. So kicking it again seemed like the right thing to do, but he was in the way so I lifted it a bit, then got a lovely bounce at the end of it.
“So there's always luck involved but it does take confidence to try it in the first place which was something that I was happy I was doing.” Daly, who also played Gaelic football for Bishopstown, added: “I was a centre back in soccer. I always wanted to be further up the pitch, but they took me into the centre backs to add a bit of height. I should have been up front!”