Amid the gloom of last week’s chastening defeat in Bath there was a sizeable ray of hope. This was provided in the considerable shape of Edwin Edogbo. It was only a 12th start for Munster, and an injury-delayed Champions Cup debut at the age of 22, but there was unstoppable try and a glimpse of what this rare Irish rugby talent might provide in the future.
Akin to Joe McCarthy, Irish rugby doesn’t tend to produce powerful athletes like Edogbo, and ala the McCarthys playing their first game for Leinster in harness last week, the day will surely come when Edogbo and his younger brother Sean – who has given a glimpse of his potential for the Ireland Under-20s – will play together for Munster.
Though quiet and something of a gentle giant according to team-mates, playing for Munster lights a fire within him and at 6ft 5in (1.96m) and 122kg (over 19 stone), Edogbo is an immensely strong athlete and a smart footballer with ball in hand, whose close-in contact work and ability to poach is a point of difference.
The try was a bonus, and didn’t amount to much for Edogbo himself as it was in a losing cause, but after two prolonged absences due to Achilles injuries, he’s just loving being a healthy, active part of Munster again.
READ MORE
Even after returning to action against Edinburgh in October after a near two-year absence and then starring in Munster’s win over Leinster at Croke Park, a head knock in that game meant Edogbo was unable to travel with the Irish squad to Chicago after Andy Farrell named him as a travelling reserve on the strength of two games in almost two years. That tells us much.
He only turns 23 this month and there’s still ample time for his potential to be realised. And he’s just loving being part of Munster again.
There are high hopes for him, and he has high hopes for himself, although he’s also not going to lose the run of himself.
“My main focus now is with Munster Rugby. I know there’s a lot of outside noise and it is appreciated, and I do want to reach those levels one day. But I think for me now I need to just focus on Munster, and try and make inroads, try and make it into the 23 every week, and go from there.”
This is only his 20th game for Munster and his home Champions Cup debut. Hence, for Edogbo, being fit and healthy (touch wood) and being part of Munster on a daily basis is a joy. Chatting with him in a room in the Munster HPC, it sounded like he was in his happy place.
“Do you know what, it’s just the craic you have with the lads and people in this building. We have a great group here. Like, there’s laughs every day and we’re making memories like we could hopefully make on the weekend with a big win.
“There’s been many days which you’d call proper Munster days, where you go into a game under pressure and we come up with the results, and it’s days like those that make it all work well.”
And for the Cork contingent in the playing squad, this first Champions Cup game in Páirc Uí Chaoimh against Gloucester has a special resonance.
“Any time we get to go down to Cork, especially for me, it’s a great day. We have a great fan base down there. They always show up in numbers, 34,500 plus tickets sold, it just shows what a strong Munster support system there is down there. It’ll hopefully be a special day.”
As well as his parents, Patience and Augustin, his older brother Moses and older sister Favour will be there, as will Sean, and many friends from home and from Cobh Pirates – he’s proud of being the first professional rugby player from Cobh.
“Home is where the heart is and Cobh is very special to me. It’s something I don’t think about too much, although it is a nice feeling. It’s a special day for all of us but the result comes first.”
He owes it all to Cobh Pirates really, and his brothers. His parents married and moved from Nigeria to Cobh, where his dad works as a nurse and his mum in retail. His older siblings were born in Nigeria, Edwin and Sean in Cork, and until he was 13, Edogbo played Gaelic football, soccer and especially tennis.
The story goes that Edogbo was on his way to a tennis lesson when he looked on at his younger brother playing in Cobh Pirates and joined in. He laughs. Not strictly true, though not a million miles from the truth either.
“I wasn’t exactly on my way to a tennis game, but I suppose I was in the gear as I’d played tennis before and then I saw my brother’s mini-game. And I was like: ‘Oh, this is more my speed.’ The following week, I went down with the parents and they signed me up.
“My older brother had played before the two of us, so we kind of knew about it. We’d watched games, but tennis is what I watched most growing up. That was where my focus was at.”
Favourite player? “Of all time or recently?” Both?
“I’d say, all time, I would have been a big Nadal fan, but I suppose someone as entertainment, Gael Monfils. Yeah, he’s very entertaining to watch.”
Within a year of that fateful day watching Sean play rugby and catching the bug, it had bypassed his other sporting loves.
“I suppose I took to it like a duck to water. I really enjoyed playing the minis and growing up through under-13s, under-14s. I started off in the centres.”
Although he wasn’t just a straight runner.
“No, I had a bit of a move about me, yeah,” he smiles.
Despite his relatively late start, he developed quickly at Cobh Pirates.
“I owe a lot to them. They’re top-notch in how they treat you. It’s a very warm community there and I’m very happy to come from that club.”
His side made a few Munster Under-18 club finals, and a highlight remains a semi-final in his last season with the club, 2019-20.
“We played Nenagh in the semi-final, down in Cashel. There were a lot of nerves going into that game because Nenagh were a very good team at the time and it was my last year, so it was my last crack at it. I think the performance we put in that day as a collective was something special.
“It’s something I still often think about now. We couldn’t play the final because of Covid so it was my last performance in a Cobh Pirates jersey.”
Indeed, Cobh Pirates and Ennis RFC shared the Munster Under-18s Cup that season, although Edogbo’s exploits had by then earned him recognition, initially with the Munster Under-16s, and then the Munster Under-18s, Ireland Under-18 clubs and Under-18 schools sides.
On finishing school in 2021 he went to UCC to study engineering.
“I always had an interest in maths, chemistry, physics, but I had to make a decision in my second year. It was very demanding hours-wise. Being up here in Limerick [in Munster’s HPC] it was very tough to keep it on, so I made the switch to economics. I’m in my final year now.”
So, if rugby doesn’t lead to riches, he has a Plan B.
“That’ll be the goal!”
Edogbo had only played one game for UCC, away to Garryowen in October 2021, before enduring one of the weirdest weeks of his career to date. On the Tuesday he had taken up Munster’s offer of a place in their Academy, but two nights later he suffered a major injury setback, tearing his left Achilles.
“Initially I didn’t really know the extent of the injury, so when I found out I was quite disappointed, but I had a good support system around me who advised me what to focus on and I was able to switch my focus pretty quickly. But it wiped out my last Under-20s season. It [Ireland Under-20s] was something I was kind of looking at that year.”
He returned to make his Munster debut against the Dragons in September 2022 but after a run of games a partially torn Achilles again interrupted his season for four months. In his third year in the Munster academy, 2023-24, a run of seven starts came to a cruel halt when he tore his right Achilles on St Stephen’s Day against Leinster in Thomond Park.
You put it to him that he’s been unlucky. “A small bit, but there’s been a lot of people way more unlucky than me.”
Still, this second, protracted recuperation required almost two years.
“I had a couple of niggles on the way, in my back and a few other things, so that was more challenging. I thought when I did it the second time it would have been easier because I had the blueprint.
“But what you find out with injuries is that no two injuries are the same. They’re going to have different roads with different difficulties, different stuff you struggle with.
“There were days when I suppose it kind of got to me a bit,” he admits with a heavy sigh. “I tried to hide it as much as possible but it started to seep through. But, again, I had a great support system around me; family, friends, Munster Rugby. They all helped me get out of those dark days.”
More than anything you wish Edwin Edogbo games. Plenty of games. He’s still only starting out really. Ever since his Munster Under-16 days he’s always dared to dream of playing for his native province, and that ambition has burned since he came into the Munster academy.
“You always have the hope but you never know if it’s ever going to happen or not, so when it does, it’s something you want to cherish.”
There’s the weight of history too and inheriting the jersey from those who’ve worn it before.
“But you also want to make your old stamp on it as well. You always want to add to the jersey as much as you can. They always say leave it in a better place than you found it.”
