DURING THE SIX Nations, Calvin Nash was quick to remind us that even for seasoned pros at the provinces, the concept of spending a couple of months in camp with teammates is something a player experiences only with his country.
As such, during Nash’s first Six Nations campaign with Ireland this year, he focused on getting to know better several of his provincial teammates with Munster as well as his new Ireland peers.
Nash contends that the better he knows players off the field, the more in tune he becomes with their instincts on it. It served him well during a maiden championship campaign in which he fit right into the fold, scoring two tries and lifting his second piece of career silverware as Ireland hung onto their European crown.
And Nash views this tour to South Africa simply as a chance to pick up where he left off in the spring.
“Yeah, it’s good. I suppose it’s the same as any other camp. I just tried to throw myself in and get the connections built up again. It’s been class to spend more time with the lads and get to know people more.
“The Six Nations helped me a lot because it gave me more calmness coming into the international stage. The chance to get to know the lads was the main thing so I could know what they’re doing on the pitch.
“At the same time, the off-the-field relationships are massive,” adds Nash, who describes his roommate in South Africa, Oli Jager, as “great craic”.
The fun will end at 4pm Irish time this Saturday, when the back-to-back Six Nations champions kick off their two-game series with the double world champions in Pretoria.
With six caps to his name, Nash is less seasoned than most of the Ireland team who will take to the field in three days’ time — but he has played almost every minute of Munster’s five-game unbeaten streak on South African soil stretching back to last season (and equally played in their Champions Cup hammering by the Sharks before that sequence).
In that specific sense, Nash has close to a unique perspective on playing rugby — and winning — in the Rainbow Nation, where the majority of Farrell’s side have played just once, three weekends ago.
“It’s a massive challenge to come down here,” Nash says. “It’s hard enough to win a game in the URC, so I can only imagine what it’s going to be like in an international Test.
“The coaches how told us about the challenge. Paulie (Paul O’Connell) was saying to us that only one Irish team has won here internationally, so that’s another massive challenge and one we have to get over ourselves.”
Nash admits that it’s “easier to find footage” of Saturday’s opponents because so many of them now play in the URC. “You’d just be all over their traits and their threats”, he says, “but other than that, we’ll focus on ourselves while being conscious of the threats they have. But we’ll focus on our connections.”
The connection between Nash and the man who gave him his Munster debut, Rassie Erasmus, is virtually non-existent, meanwhile. “Other than that I didn’t have much dealings with him,” Nash says.
But the former Crescent student did his best to absorb as much information as possible from Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber, “two masterminds of rugby”, during their fleeting time together at the southern province.
Ireland will soon make the hour-long trip north-east from Johannesburg to Pretoria having spent the guts of the week training at altitude.
Nash was earlier this season part of a Munster side who had less time to acclimatise and still managed to upset the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld, just as was the case for eventual URC champions Glasgow a couple of weekends ago.
And the Ireland wing says that Saturday’s conditions on the Highveld will have “no real effect on mindset”.
“Rugby is still rugby at the end of the day,” Nash adds. “You have to be more worried about kicks going a bit further, but it’s just heightened awareness about that.
“Other than that, we’re seeing similar pictures and it doesn’t change very much. Both teams have to play at altitude, so whoever deals with it the best will win I suppose.”
