In The Spotlight: Niall O’Donovan

We talk to Munster’s Niall O’Donovan about his role as Team Manager with the Senior squad and his involvement in the province’s new Training Centre which is currently under construction on the University of Limerick campus.

A Shannon clubman all his life, Niall first took to the rugby field at the age of 7 from where he progressed through the age grades, before representing the Limerick outfit in the senior ranks for almost 15 years. A number 8, Niallo (as he is known amongst the rugby fraternity) would also earn provincial representation for almost eight of those years.

An impressive coaching career saw Niall initially coach Shannon to All-Ireland League title wins in 1994, ‘95 and ’96, and to a further title as the club’s Director of Rugby in 1997.

From there he became the Assistant Coach with Munster up until the end of the 2001/02 season after which he spent six years as Forwards Coach to the Ireland Senior squad.

In more recent times, he acted as Team Manager and Forwards Coach to the Munster ‘A’ team that won the inaugural British & Irish Cup squad in 2012, and later that summer began his current role of Team Manager to the Munster Senior squad.

Now almost three years on, Niall take us through just some of his daily duties, “It’s a wide and varied role but essentially it’s everything to do with looking after a squad of 40 to 50 players and a management team of 20 plus – making sure the day to day operations of the Senior squad run smoothly.

“I deal with the players, management team and coaches directly but there are many different facets to the modern game so you need to have contact with every different department. For example I also deal with the likes of Jennifer Murphy in Team Services regarding the logistics and organisation of match trips, our Communications Manager Fiona Murphy for the media and PR side of things and our CEO Garrett Fitzgerald when it comes to recruitment.

“I am the first point of contact for the Senior squad and in general terms I need to know where everybody is – if they’re sick, if they’re off – and that way I can let relevant bodies know who will be missing from various training sessions or meetings, etc.”

With Munster’s next competitive fixture not until March 28^th – against Connacht at Thomond Park – the squad are currently on a down week. Despite this, Niall is still punching the clock at the Munster offices in the UL Arena this week. So what do weeks like this involve for the Team Manager?

“Catching up”, he laughs. “When it’s game week the job is a seven day role. You are making sure players are registered and the proper permits are in place for guys who may be slotting in at the weekend. The logistics of a match also need to be checked, everything from flights, buses, hotels, etc, and that’s before I get to catch up with team management, coaches and our Performance Nutritionist Dr. Catherine Norton who oversees the players’ diets.

“On weeks like this I don’t need to worry about those things as much so it gives me a chance to catch up on whatever I’ve had on the back burner, primarily my involvement in the new Training Centre which is under construction at UL.”

Currently Cork and Limerick based players train out of two centres at CIT and UL respectively, coming together twice a week for joint squad sessions in both Cork and Limerick. Upon completion of the new Training Centre the full squad will train out of that single training base at UL.

“I’m on the committee that is overseeing the construction of the new facility. We meet once a month and liaise with UL, the architects, the builders and all the different bodies invested in the project. It’s a large undertaking and one that needed to be right from the very start. I’m glad to say it’s progressing very well.

“We’ve now signed off on the final designs and the enabling work has been done on the site. We are ready for the contractor to commence work on the main build within the next week or two. All going to plan we hope to be finished by March of next year.

“The split of Cork and Limerick and getting together twice a week is unique in the professional game. You can’t say that it didn’t work for us at times, we’ve had some great successes while doing it, but that said, guys training together on a more regular basis, and management and coaches sitting down together on a more regular basis can only help.

“In our game you are looking for percentages and small margins to make the big difference and I think we will get that from guys talking and seeing each other on a daily basis rather than meeting up twice a week.”