In the 24th minute the La Rochelle fullback Dillyn Leyds kicked long into the Munster half during last weekend’s Champions Cup round-of-16 tie. Jack Crowley gathered and passed infield to his fullback Thaakir Abrahams. Although the home outhalf Ihaia West had just been binned, Abrahams was 30 metres from his own line, with the entire La Rochelle team in front of him, and Munster hadn’t done much of note until that point.
A goose step as he veered right, still well away from being engaged, was perhaps a signal of his intent. Suddenly he stepped back to his left and then right again, accelerating through a gap between Levani Botia and Leyds, and was quickly in the clear, drawing Teddy Thomas before passing inside for the alert Craig Casey to complete the try by the posts.
Munster, and indeed any Irish team, tend not to score counter-attacking tries from deep. In those moments you realised something special might be brewing. In those moments you also realised why Abrahams had been brought in during the summer, ostensibly to replace the X-factor which the retired Simon Zebo once used to provide.
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“I like to scan to see where the space is on the field and also create the space,” said Abrahams this week in reliving his role in the try. “You train for that, and you use your abilities to get there. It is something I train and always work on.
“You try to manipulate the play as you go,” he added, demonstrating that by initially veering to the right he was luring Botia away from Leyds on his inside. “So, as I went I pulled one guy {Botia] to the side and I knew it was going to create a lag with his catch-up [chasers]. I pulled him to one side and fortunately there was no one behind him. I just used my pace to get through the gap there.”
This was only Abrahams’s sixth appearance for Munster, and the first since December and first at fullback, but it was a punt that paid off. Although almost exclusively a winger in his days with the Sharks, seven of his nine starts in his season with Lyon before joining Munster were at fullback and he regards himself as both.
“I haven’t had the best start to my Munster career here due to injury. And, man, I was so excited to get out there and just live it up and just enjoy it with the lads because it was a hard four months for me – just to see them playing and to see them enjoying it out there. I really wanted to be part of it. Coming back and playing a game like that against La Rochelle, I really enjoyed that."
Despite his injuries Abrahams and his wife Tasneem and daughter Diyaana have settled in well in Limerick. He has become a popular figure within the Munster squad, and his abilities have always been hailed by team-mates and coaches, albeit his first name has proven tricky.
“Thaaks, Thacker – everything except my name,” he laughs good-naturedly. He’s been nicknamed Taakies too, which is Limerick slang for runners or trainers. “Yeah, honestly, Taakies. This is true actually. I got everything, man.”
Although Abrahams played in the pool defeat in Castres, last weekend was his first proper experience of Munster and the Red Army taking flight to France.
“Honestly, I didn’t know the away support was so crazy. It was really unreal for us. To see that for the first time, I was really blown away. Driving in on the bus, obviously you see just red flags, it felt like a home game coming in. It was good for us.
“It does give you belief and you do feel it in the game as well because you hear the Munster chants and you hear them next to the field. It is special for us and it does give us a boost in the game as well.”
Abrahams hopes to have a better experience against Bordeaux Bègles (UBB) in this Saturday’s quarter-final at the Stade Chaban-Delmas (kick-off 4pm local time/3pm Irish) than on his sole appearance there with Lyon, when beaten 46-10 in December 2023.
But this is a better equipped and more confident Munster side which also has momentum from a week ago, albeit Louis Bielle-Biarrey will return alongside Romain Burros and Damian Penaud in UBB’s opposing back three.
“We obviously know how good they are and their abilities to just score tries. So we’ll be wary about that and we’ll be ready for that. It brings out the best of you playing against them. So we’re excited, I’m excited. We can’t wait to take on the weekend.”
