How did he do that?

It’s 2013 in the then Millenium Stadium. Ireland are 10 points up against Wales when Rory Best charges down a kick and releases the ball wide to Jamie Heaslip who passed it to a young Cork man on his third appearance for Ireland. What that young Cork man did next would instantly change him from an exciting young prospect making his way in the test game into the player everyone was talking about.

His name was Simon Zebo.

It was spontaneous imagination and skill at the highest level of the game and it wasn’t a one-off either. He is a player with magic woven through his entire career from Munster to Ireland, to Racing and then back to Munster.

Off the top of my head;

• He recovered a botched pass against Edinburgh in the middle of the field, spun around a defender, chipped the ball over the top, recovered it and then flung a 20+ metre pass to Keith Earls for a try in the corner.
• A fizzed pass off his right – again – that travelled the guts of 20m in the air to Keith Earls against Romania in the World Cup.
• A deft kick through with his left foot around a defender that popped up two metres later right into his hands for a try against the same team in the same game.
• His try in the mud against Racing 92 from the halfway line.
• His try against Wasps to become the all-time top scorer for Munster in the European Cup.
• His hat-trick against Northampton in Franklins Gardens – the intercept in particular.
• His try a few weeks ago against the Ospreys.
• His out-the-back door offload to Jared Payne in the build-up to that Jamie Heaslip try against Italy a few years ago.
• An insane, mid-tackle in mid-air offload to Juan Imhoff for Racing 92 against Montpellier.
• His bulldozing try against Toulouse in Thomnd Park when it looked like he was going to produce some Zebo Magic but instead just ran over the defender.
• A blind offload to Damian De Allende in Thomond Park against Exeter.

There are more, for sure, but those are the ones that I can remember sitting here reminiscing. And when it comes down to it, more so than medals – and he has a few of those too – because you don’t get one as a fan, players and, I suppose, rugby teams are all about how you remember them and if you remember them at all.

Simon Zebo will be remembered.

As players go, he’s one of the most charismatic to pull on a red or green jersey. Want proof? Find someone who doesn’t have an opinion on Simon Zebo. You’ll love him or hate him but you’ll never nothing him. That’s what true charisma brings you; attention, love, hate and everything in between.

The “Z” hand signal after every try, the way he’d egg on the crowd and acknowledge the ZEEEEEE-BOOOOOOOO chants, which would only make them louder; this was the showman at work but, like all good showmen, he knew there had to be steak to go with the sizzle.

Zebo is third in the all-time rankings for tries scored in the European Cup, where he has 35 tries. Only Chris Ashton and Vincent Clerc have scored more. Zebo has a strike rate of a try every two games in Europe across his career. If you saw Simon Zebo play twice in the Champions Cup, statistically he probably scored in one of those games.

He averaged just under a try every two games for Munster across 177 caps and has the same strike rate for Racing 92 in 60 games across three seasons. That is elite-level scoring whatever way you slice it.

At test level, Zebo’s opportunities came in fits and starts as he oscillated in and out of Joe Schmidt and his good graces. Schmidt was the Irish coach for the majority of Zebo’s prime career and, in my opinion, Zebo’s confidence in taking the low-percentage option didn’t sit well with the Kiwi’s natural on-field conservatism.

Schmidt had very specific roles for his wingers and Zebo, talented as he was, didn’t quite fit with Schmidt’s vision. It wasn’t that Zebo wasn’t capable of playing to a specific system. That’s often thrown at him but it’s never fit, for me. Zebo was Rassie Erasmus’ fullback for Munster during 2015/16 and ran the roleset that would eventually be Willie Le Roux’s for the Springboks as they became back-to-back world champions. Erasmus loved a playmaking, creative fullback that could make something happen from deep, outside a controlling, kicking flyhalf; Zebo fit the bill perfectly. At Ireland level, Schmidt wanted a strike-running, big kicking controller at fullback – Rob Kearney – so the only place that fit for Zebo was the #11 shirt. It felt like Zebo’s best qualities – his playmaking, imagination and freakish passing range off both sides – were hidden under a bucket in that role where he spent too much time chasing kicks, hitting rucks and running lines a little too heavy.

2016/17 was the ultimate example of this dichotomy. Zebo was Erasmus’ secondary playmaker and x-factor man at fullback – a strike playmaker by roleset – but Schmidt used him in the constricted, Big Left Boot relief kicker + finisher role that would eventually belong to Jacob Stockdale a season later. That isn’t to say that Zebo played badly in that direct role; his game against the All Blacks in Chicago was one of his best, for club or country.

That year – 2017/18 – saw Zebo fall out of Irish contention completely while Stockdale ascended to the #11 jersey that he would go on to own for the next three seasons before James Lowe, injury and the changing needs of Andy Farrell put paid to his time as a centrally contracted regular international.

That same season, Zebo decided he would not renew his contract with Munster and explore a big-money, three-season move to Racing 92 and the TOP14, something which had long been an ambition of his with his French roots through his father, Arthur. Zebo lit it up at Racing in a roleset and system that suited him down to the ground. He scored 17 tries in his first season! So much so, that there were calls to get him back into the Irish team during the disastrous 2019 World Cup build-up and aftermath.

But Schmidt had made his choice and, as he’d say himself I’d imagine, he would live and die by that. Late Schmidt Ireland looked like a team that badly needed the imagination, flair and unpredictability that Simon Zebo brought naturally, but by that stage, it was too late.

In 2021/22, Zebo returned to Munster at the end of his Racing 92 contract to add a lot of the same things that both Munster and Ireland had lacked in his absence. Johann Van Graan – who signed Zebo back to Munster before later activating his exit clause to go to Bath – valued the playmaking and unpredictability that Zebo brought to a back three. That strike playmaker role set was one we badly missed in his absence, despite the excellent dependability of Mike Haley in the same period. Zebo scored 9 tries in his first season back – including two on his second debut against the Sharks – before injury killed his season against Toulouse in the Aviva. Munster’s season ended in dire disappointment but for Zebo, it was like he never left. That was not enough to force his way back into Andy Farrell’s plans. Farrell was every bit as conservative as Schmidt in his own way and he could never bring himself to look beyond Lowe or Keenan, who he unearthed the season before. I always felt that Zebo was a guy with 35 caps that could have had 7o under a different coach. It wasn’t to be.

Zebo’s next season under Rowntree was disrupted by injury but he brought back some of the old magic in this season just gone when he stepped in at fullback quite regularly, first for the injured Mike Haley and then instead of him. The clock looked like it was rolling back for a guy who, all of a sudden, was in his mid-30s. Like it is for all of us, Simon Zebo turned into a crafty veteran way too quickly.

He decided to retire at the end of the season with a fairytale run to a final in view but, as ever, sport rarely plays along with the stories we tell ourselves.

He leaves Munster as a player capable of creating a connection with fans – young or old – like no other while also being an elite scorer and creative force. He is the player that you so often hear that “we” don’t create in Ireland while being born and raised in Cork. That’s because Simon Zebo was never, and could never, be a rugby robot. He was a pure expression of joy and creativity on the rugby field who always reminded you that being a pro athlete is the coolest job in the world.

He’ll be missed and, more importantly, remembered.