Alex Nankivell of Munster during the United Rugby Championship match between Munster and Cardiff Rugby at Thomond Park in Limerick. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
Shortly after the hour mark at The Rec last weekend, Bath’s influential scrum-half Ben Spencer put up the latest of his many towering box-kicks, and Alex Nankivell, Munster’s makeshift winger, took his eye off the ball for a split second before fumbling it into touch.
A brief stoppage in play followed, and as Nankivell assessed Bath’s attacking shape before they took their lineout, he locked eyes with Finn Russell, whose body language left him in no doubt about what was coming next. “I saw him looking at me off the lineout and I knew he was coming back to me,” Nankivell recalls.