‘He Loves Playing For Munster’

Sean Dougall was a virtual unknown to most Munster fans when he signed from Rotherham Titans in the summer of 2012.

The 24-year-old was snapped up after collecting both the Player of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year accolades at the English Championship side.

The transition to PRO12 and the Heineken Cup was a smooth one as Dougall slotted straight into a position as a regular in Munster's first XV.

He explains: “I had a good pre-season and plenty of warm-up games. I think the more that I played the more comfortable I was in the environment. So it’s been a good transition for me, it’s been a really big learning curve as well.”

It says much about the maturity and professionalism of the openside flanker that, with Titans’ club captain Sam Dickinson out injured for a large chunk of the 2011/12 season, a 22-year-old Dougall captained the side for much of the campaign.

Within six weeks of his Munster debut against Edinburgh in September 2012, Dougall marked his first Heineken Cup start with a try (pictured below) in the 22-17 defeat to Racing Metro at the Stade de France. He followed that up with another Heineken Cup try in his second appearance against Edinburgh a week later.

Injuries towards the end of 2012 and early in 2013 curtailed an impressive first season with Munster but Dougall was rewarded with a two-year contract extension for some fine performances in his 13 appearances.

Dougall has continued his progression this term and scored another important Heineken Cup try to get the ball rolling early on in the 36-8 win over Perpignan in December.

On his season so far, Dougall said: “It’s all been going well, I’ve had a bit of game time but I got injured in December. That was probably the worst time to pick up a knock but up until then it was going really well. I think now, for me personally, it’s just about trying to keep my head down and getting myself back into the starting team.”

Prior to his two seasons with Rotherham, Dougall, who was born in Scotland but moved to the North of England at an early age, spent an injury-hit two years at Ulster. That difficult spell proved to be a character-building spell for the tenacious back-row.

Dougall admitted: “It tested how much I really wanted to play to be honest with you. There were times when I thought ‘is it really worth it?’, but I always had faith that it would come good in the end and things have definitely picked up. I’m not where I want to be just yet as a player but I’m definitely on the right track here at Munster.”

The number seven tends to avoid the limelight, but he was thrust into it earlier this season when an injury to Niall Ronan meant that Dougall, who was on Munster A duty in Nottingham, had to get back to Limerick in time for the following day’s Heineken Cup clash against Gloucester.

That Dougall managed to get back to Limerick at all was an achievement but he then played a crucial part in the 26-10 win over the English side with a team-high ten tackles.

They say that you can tell a lot about a player from what his team-mates say about him and Munster captain Peter O’Mahony was full of praise for his fellow back-row forward.

“I could be here all night talking about Sean,” said O’Mahony after the game. “He’s a top character and one of our hardest trainers. He’s not in the door long but he’s setting standards and he’s an awesome fella to be alongside in training.”

Munster’s record appearance holder Donncha O’Callaghan echoed O’Mahony: “He’s (normally) into bed at 9 at night but first into the gym in the morning; he’s an incredible professional, a fella who sets standards and is so hungry for it that it’s brilliant.

"He sets the tone in training every day. I can’t speak highly enough of him in terms of his work rate; he’s old school.

“He brings something different, he’s hungry for it, he wants it, he loves playing for Munster and it’s great to get a guy like that. We’ve been lucky before to get guys who do that, he’s in the mould of guys like Rua [Tipoki] and Trevor [Halstead] who brought it on in terms of training and stuff. Sean has been setting high standards non-stop.” High praise indeed.

Dougall has represented Ireland at Under-19 level (pictured left in 2008 against Italy) and harbours ambitions of a call-up to the senior Ireland side but his focus for the immediate future is on cementing a place in the Munster starting XV.

“That [international recognition] would be a real ambition of mine but at the moment for me it’s just about becoming an out-and-out starter for Munster really, that’s my goal.

"At this stage of my career I just want to make a name for myself here at Munster and whatever leads on from that [with the Ireland set-up] – happy days – but I’ve just got to take it one step at a time really.”