33-25 Champions Cup pool opening win<\/a> in Cork and he credits Munster with creating an atmosphere that makes such important career and life decisions easy to arrive at.<\/p>\n\u201cThat probably more shows what this club is about, how it makes people feel when they come here. That’s Munster as a club, but also the people around the place, the supporters and everyone just makes me feel so welcome and it’s just so easy to turn up and contribute that way. Everyone’s got your back and, yeah, it’s been easy so I’m very grateful for that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Costello, speaking in the contract announcement, cited Nankivell\u2019s desire to become Irish qualified in 2028 and pursue an international career with Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell first and foremost it is purely Munster, we’ve gone to a stage where we’re kind of rebuilding, and I want to be a part of that,\u201d the centre said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that’s the first thing, but then obviously when you look at the years of when I’ve re-signed to, then obviously the international stuff and being qualified for Ireland comes into it then.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn’t think about that so much, but obviously it’s there and look, it might not happen but international rugby to me is the pinnacle, and to put myself in a position where I can do that is pretty exciting. So I’ll worry about what that looks like when it gets there and try and do it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Munster's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/5266466_14_articleinline_3595767.jpg\" "\\"Munster's")
Munster’s Alex Nankivell attempts to break the line despite the efforts of Lekima Tagitagivalu, left, and Maxime Machenaud of Racing 92. Pic: Tyler Miller\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n
For now, though, there is Saturday\u2019s URC derby with Leinster to consider. The Kiwi-born midfielder likens the match-up to Super Rugby\u2019s needle match between his Chiefs and serial title winners Crusaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Crusaders, obviously, their history of winning speaks for itself. They were always the top dogs and we were the guys that had gotten close but hadn’t quite done it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo those games were always huge. It was a very similar kind of emotion. It was an intense week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe preparation was bone deep and there would have been a few scraps at training and things like that. So it just means a bit more. Obviously it’s still another game in the URC that you want to win and get the most points you can out of.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I guess playing against guys you know really well but then also another province within the country that you’re in, it just adds that more emotion. You want to get the bragging rights and things like that. So that’s what it kind of feels like to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously Leinster have done amazingly well the last five, 10 years maybe so, I don\u2019t really know, but obviously you want to win.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whatever about the Leinster rivalry, emotions were running high in Munster last week also as they prepared for a European rematch with Racing 92 on the 10th anniversary weekend of head coach Anthony Foley\u2019s sudden death at the age of 42.<\/p>\n
As a Munster player who joined seven years after the tragic event, Nankivell spoke of \u201cAxel\u2019s\u201d ongoing impact on the current squad and the atmosphere created around last Saturday\u2019s game at P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Chaoimh, which had started the previous day when Foley\u2019s widow Olive presented the team with their jerseys at the stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really special. I didn’t have much experience with Axel, but last week was really cool for me because I learned a lot around what he actually contributed to the club off the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the sayings that we use, around the set-up in the changing room, that was his idea to put all the tighties together, the half-backs together, so they’re all connected before the game. Things like that, just to see his legacy and the impact that it’s still having on the club was pretty cool.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, there’s lads in the group, players and staff, that would have known him really well and would have played with him and coached with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see how special he was to them and the impact that he had on them made it easy for me just to buy into going out and first and foremost preparing really well for wrestling and then going out and putting on a performance that the other lads that knew him said he’d be really proud of. To be honest, I think we did that, which made it even more sweet after the game.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of the jersey presentation on the day of the anniversary, he added: \u201cSo it was pretty emotional. But then, Olive speaking, she’s an amazingly strong woman and what she said, I guess, about him and what he might have said to her, seeing her go into the changing room was pretty hardcase.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the way she spoke was just really powerful and just made the lads kind of grow another leg. I’m sure they used it going into Saturday because it was very cool.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was on a pilgrimage in Italy and brought us back miraculous medals too. So there’s probably something in that as well. But yeah, she’s an amazing woman. She spoke really well and definitely motivated us even more to put on a good performance for him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another Munster contract, another step closer to Ireland recognition, but former Maori All Black centre Alex Nankivell is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,11897,43],"class_list":["post-660928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-munster-rugby","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}