Nicholas Has Boots Back On As Shannon ‘Rebuild’ With Promotion Bid

There is a particular weight that comes with longevity at a club like Shannon. It is not just counted in caps or seasons, but in responsibility, in expectation, and in the quiet understanding that the jersey carries history long before any individual pulls it on.

For Lee Nicholas, that weight now sits across both shoulders – as a player and director of rugby – as Shannon attempt to steady themselves, rebuild, and push forward again in Energia All-Ireland League Men’s Division 2A.

At 31 years of age, with more than 150 senior appearances to his name and the road to 200 still stretching ahead, Nicholas is managing life on two fronts.

On the field, he is once again pulling on the jersey week after week, drawn back from retirement due to injuries. Off it, he is overseeing a reset for Shannon that comes after successive relegations and a period that tested the much-decorated Limerick club’s identity as much as its results.

“We’ve had a tough few years in the club now with successive relegations,” Nicholas told IrishRugby.ie. “We kind of stood back this year and we’re viewing it as a bit of a reset year.

“The first thing was to make sure that we don’t go into free fall completely and then start planning forward, that we can bounce back up.”

That reset has not been smooth or linear. Shannon sit third in the table heading into round 12, winners of their last three games, but the league has offered few certainties beyond the relentlessness of competition. Close margins have defined their campaign. Division 2A is far from a soft landing.

“It hasn’t gone all of our own way. In fairness to the other teams in the league, there’s some fierce competition throughout the division.

“Apart from Barnhall, who are kind of running away at the top, everybody else is taking points off each other. The games have been quite close and like that, we’ve been beaten by Barnhall but also by Cashel, Dungannon, and by Wanderers, who were just below us when we beat them last weekend.

“There’s a lot of teams beating each other, which shows the competitive edge of it, but also the fact that it’s not an easy division to come up out of. Barnhall have been knocking on that door for five or six years now and only now they’re getting their reward it seems.

“The quality of rugby in 2A is still quite high. Obviously going from 1A to 1B is different, and then 1B to 2A is different. But at the same time, there’s some quality rugby being played in 2A at the moment.”

Shannon may be in a play-off position at the minute, but complacency has been banished. They know from previous campaigns that things can change in an instant. Last season they were keeping their heads above water only to falter and finish at the bottom of the table.

The season before that, a last day defeat away to UCD saw them go into a relegation play-off once again, one they lost heavily to Old Belvedere on home soil. Switching off comes at a price at this stage of the season, and Shannon know that all too well.

That mindset is essential with a demanding schedule ahead, including a difficult assignment away to sixth-placed Galway Corinthians this Saturday, in a match that will be played at Creggs RFC (kick-off 3pm).

“It has been a bit of a realisation that it’s not going to be a walk in the park. It’s going to be a tough journey for us,” acknowledged Nicholas, Shannon’s former club captain who played for Munster ‘A’ in the old British & Irish Cup.

“We’re in the top four at the moment, but there are a number of games to go and we’re not taking anything for granted. We’re taking each game as it comes, with the realisation that there are some quality teams to come up against.

“We’ve two northern trips coming up on top of all those teams who are around us. We’ve just beaten Wanderers, it is a bit of a rebuild year for us.”

At the heart of that rebuild is youth. Looking at the team that defeated Wanderers 34-17 last time out, several players are in their early to mid-20s.

Others like Ronan Ryan, who was captain of the Crescent College Comprehensive senior side last year under Nicholas, are 19 cutting their teeth at this level for this first time. Nicholas speaks with genuine pride about the next wave.

“A big focus on us is to develop the 21s that we have at the moment. In that, we’ve got a really, really solid group, they’re top of the Donal Walsh competition at the moment.

“They’ve got a huge game against UCC next week, but with that, we’ve had five guys in that 21s squad who have played for our senior team in the AIL this year.

“On top of another four 20s who are involved with Munster or Ireland, who haven’t played in the Donal Walsh. The big thing for us is that we continue to keep them involved, getting them decent games and trying to integrate them into the senior team.

“So that next year they’re ready to hit the ground running and really make it their own. We’ve got a really, really strong under-age in the club that we’re very proud of.

“Bridging the gap between your Under-18s and your Under-20s and your senior AIL, it’s a massive gap. I know it’s been spoken about before from different AIL clubs, but that’s something that we’re really focusing on.”

He added: “I suppose that’s where 2A gives us that opportunity, where 1A wouldn’t. You can get a guy in, you can put an U-20 player into the pack and he can mix it with the older guys in there. The guys that we’ve thrown in have survived us. They’ve done really well.

“Your Ronan Ryans, your Tommy O’Driscolls, your Michael Donnellys. They’ve really pushed and added to the squad when they’ve come in as opposed to taking away from it. We’re very happy with how that’s gone.

“It’s about trying to develop our homegrown players and just add in the one or two outsiders in key positions, where we may not be able to produce or we haven’t been producing ourselves.”

The spine of the team reflects Limerick’s rugby ecosystem. Several players have come through the budding schools system, like Oisin Minogue, son of ex-Ireland international Rosie Foley. He went on to line out for the Ireland U-20s and is in the Munster Academy.

Emmet Calvey is the same, and while many others have come through a similar pathway and are developing at varying rates, experience balances out the youth within the Shannon team.

“Going through our team, starting from the back, we’ve got Matt Te Pou, we’ve got Harry Long, Cian O’Halloran, who have all played Schools Senior Cup rugby in the last four or five years.

“Then that’s complemented by the likes of Neil Cronin and Jamie Gavin, who had a bit more experience. Similarly, Robbie Deegan came into the squad, adding a bit more maturity. I’ve already listed the likes of Ronan, Tommy, Emmet Calvey, even Jamie Conway has played a lot of rugby for us.

“(Ireland Under-20 squad member) Alex Lautsou (pictured above) has played a lot of rugby for us this year. That’s been complemented by our seasoned AIL players, Cian McCann, Kelvin Brown, or Neal Moylett.

“Striking the balance is one thing, but again, having the backing of those guys coming through the schools system in Limerick has been very useful for us.

“Making the step up can be challenging for them, but our lads have grabbed it with both hands and are very disciplined. We’re delighted with it.”

Nicholas’ own journey mirrors the club’s roots. He came through St. Mary’s minis before schools rugby took precedence at St. Munchin’s College. Shannon soon became his rugby home, his debut coming back in 2013, and the rest is history.

The former Ireland Students international reflected: “It has been a long time, a long time with Shannon since leaving school at St. Munchin’s. But I did come through the St. Mary’s mini system. I’ve been with Shannon since I left school.

“I’ve been coaching in the school with Crescent College. I do have the experience of coaching in the school, and I suppose leading that programme.

“I just said this year, off the back of a couple of frustrating seasons, I said I’d try and get into the coaching side of things. I took on the (director of rugby) job, we’ve got a really good group of coaches, so just trying to allow the coaches to do their job, and looking after the other bits and pieces.

“Organising physios, linking in with our manager to organise away trips and all that craic, it’s tough. We’ve got a really, really good bunch of volunteers that are in the senior set-up at the moment, and our team manager and our kit men.

“So I’m very fortunate to have those by my side. But I can’t deny that it hasn’t been challenging at times. Especially coming off the back of two successive relegations.”

Early setbacks tested belief coming into the new season, progress was visible beneath the results. Soon momentum followed, and winning performances were hard-earned in a very testing Division 2A landscape.

“We had a really early start to pre-season, in fairness to the lads they all bought in. Then we had a really good summer, but at the same time, after two good wins, we lost our first two league games.

“We kind of felt that we were moving in the right direction. We beat Banbridge at home, we were pipped by Dungannon up there. And then we had some really good wins against Ballymena, Greystones, and Corinthians at home.

“I remember it poured rain for the entire game against Greystones, and then similarly, we defended like dogs against Corinthians at Thomond Park.

“Unfortunately, we went to Dublin a bit complacent going to Wanderers, but they kind of blew us away that day. So the weekend just gone was a big fixture for us, making sure that we didn’t let that happen again.”

At Shannon, enjoyment and responsibility walk hand in hand. For Nicholas, they now define both sides of his role as the club looks, patiently and deliberately, toward its next chapter.

Rebuilding is now the focus. The culture of the club remains the same, the perspective is there. There is a weight to Shannon’s famous black and blue hooped jersey, but with a new wave of players coming through, they have taken it in their stride.

With plenty of the seasoned players for support, like Nicholas who has found it difficult to take off the jersey after coming back into the playing group, the club clearly means a lot to them. The next chapter is one they want to write, one game at a time. First is Galway Corinthians this weekend to keep their promotion push going.

“We felt like we’d had a good culture over the last number of years. Like that sometimes we forget that it’s a hobby. That people that go through different things in life, and they’ve got difficult jobs, they’re working long hours, to come out to Coonagh, to come out to wherever we’re training, it’s their release, so we have to remember that.

“But like that, we also then want…we’re a competitive bunch, and we want to be pushing ourselves on. We’ve had the difficult few years where we’ve been up and down out of 1A, and now we’re in 2A. That’s been a real knock for us.

“But again, it’s about rebuilding now, developing our own, and also complementing that with a couple of lads from outside. Continuing that strong culture that we’ve had that’s brought us to Washington DC over the years. We’ve been in Cape Town, we’ve been in Newcastle.

“And I suppose we just need to make sure that that complements what we’re doing on the pitch, and it’s something that people are looking at Shannon and saying, ‘I want to be part of that’.”

The wily number 8/second row continued: “I think that is the case with a lot of the Limerick teams. That’s a huge part of what makes us so successful, pound for pound. That it is very local, it is very tribal around here for the most part.

“And like that, I was forced out of retirement back there for the Ballymena game at the beginning of November after a couple of injuries against Dungannon up there.

“It’s been hard to take off the jersey since, unfortunately that’s because the head coach, Neil Cronin, keeps picking me!

“But again every time you play, especially at my age, you just make the most of the opportunity and you enjoy it. That is a big part of it. It’s often a release or it’s often taken for granted.”

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