Linking back up with Munster after the World Cup was a homecoming in more ways than one for Craig Casey. For all the familiar faces at the province’s UL base, a new one for everyone else was all too familiar for the young scrumhalf.
Casey’s uncle, Mossy Lawler, joined Munster as skills coach in advance of this season. His three appearances for the province since returning from France may have been the first time Casey and Lawler – a former player himself – worked together in an official capacity, but the helping hand of his uncle is no new thing.
“I would have been very, very close to Mossy,” explains Casey. “I only lived about five doors down from him when I was growing up as a little fella.
“So I was constantly around him, would see him a few days a week, would go kicking with him a few days a week, passing with him a few days a week.
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“Funnily enough, he was actually my first gym coach when started off in the gym at about 13, so he started off that whole process for me. In terms of my rugby career he’s been absolutely massive for me.
“He texted me two weeks ago for our first official one-on-one session, which was crazy considering we’ve probably done around 250 sessions together, but it’s been brilliant. I love having him in, he’s a really intense rugby fella, which is what I absolutely love.”
Casey jokes about his mother’s worry for the two of them working together, but he remains confident that the family connection is only a good thing.
“The dynamic since he came in has been brilliant. I thought we would butt heads a bit more because we’re two bitter fellas when we want to be but it’s been class. I’m really learning loads off him, a really good fella.”
What exactly is he learning, what is the role of a skills coach?
“Mossy has taken a lot of the fine-tuning details in training – catch-pass drills, breakdown drills, that would be his stuff in the training session. Then when we split he’ll take a load of the backs stuff and he’s always there on hand for any player that needs it.
“As a skills coach he’s been absolutely brilliant for me. He’s tweaked a few things that have helped me massively and given me confidence in things as well that I wouldn’t felt confidence in myself.”
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As for returning to provincial duties with a new dynamic, Munster’s opponents this weekend, Leinster, have a new environment of their own with Garry Ringrose and James Ryan sharing captaincy duties now that Johnny Sexton has retired.
Saturday’s win over the Scarlets saw the first time the duo combined in the leadership role, and they are figuring out the respective duties as they go – although Ringrose did leave Ryan to the customary prematch photo with the mascots.
“We just go off feel, we’ve played long enough together,” explains Ringrose. “In terms of the coin toss and stuff like that, we said we’d figure that out as we go along.
“In terms of talking with the ref, I remember last year captaining Leinster and I remember telling the ref if there’s anything that needs to be said you can just talk to James as opposed to stopping the game and calling me in closer, so it naturally happens that way anyway with whoever is closer to the action.”
As for who roars at the lads in the changing room before a match, Ringrose is happy to share those duties but is adamant his team-mate is the better option.
“James is brilliant, an inspirational speaker, he can invoke emotion really well. Sometimes I like hearing him talk as well so I’d be saying, ‘You take this one’.”
