John Hodnett wasn’t supposed to be here.
At this stage, we all know the pathway for talent in Irish Rugby over the last 10/15 years. Do well in your school, impress in the Munster Junior Cup, move up to play Munster Senior Cup early, do well there and you’ll catch the eye provincially and nationally.
In Leinster that’s Michaels, Blackrock, Clongowes, Gonzaga and so on. In Munster, it’s Pres, CBC, Munchins, Crescent Comp, Bandon Grammar and schools like that. It’s not perfect by any means but it’s been pretty successful.
John Hodnett went to Mount Saint Michaels Secondary School in Rosscarbery and came up playing his rugby for Clonakilty RFC, the club my uncle also played for.
The chances of making it into the professional set-up from the club scene only with no elite school performances are incredibly slim because of how good you have to be to make it from the likes of Munster u18 clubs to the AIL with UCC to the Ireland u20s to the academy to being a professional starter in knockout games for Munster.
This article on Hodnett in the Southern Star sums up quite clearly.
Malachy Boohig can remember John at U13 level. Highly rated then, it’s fair to say he is fulfilling his potential.
‘I first worked with John when he was U13 and I remember the second or third game of that season,’ he said. ‘On the touchline, I said to the head of our coaching group, Maurice Shanley, that I was very happy with the way the team was shaping up. He said to me, “you think that’s good, wait until you see our best player”.
His name was John Hodnett.
‘John turned up the following week and straightaway, from the very first minute, you could see what Maurice was on about. You could see John’s potential, he was just exceptional from day one. He had wonderful skills, a fantastic attitude. He’s probably the most humble, understated lad that you could come across. The success he has had has never gone to his head. He remains level headed as always.’
If you’re wondering why John Hodnett feels like a throwback to the likes of the Bull Hayes or Peter Clohessy, it’s because John Hodnett came up the same way. Every pro who makes it did it the hard way, I truly believe that, because it’s such a hard sport to become a professional in these days but anyone who makes it through the club scene and the club scene alone is doing it on Ultra Hard Mode.
That’s the road the Rock Hodnett walked to get to where he got to this season.
John Hodnett’s 2022/23 was certainly interesting. He was included on the Emerging Ireland tour – before being excluded from the resultant Ireland A squad in November – but played far bigger and better games than those selected ahead of him. Hodnett featured in every one of Munster’s European Cup games, was in the Munster side that beat South Africa A in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and then played all but four minutes of Munster’s trophy-winning run in the URC knockouts before scoring the winner in the last five minutes.
His performances were such that there were some raised eyebrows nationally, not just in Munster when he didn’t make the wider Irish training squad for the World Cup.
That goes some way to describing the impact that Hodnett had this season.
From a role perspective, he was pretty much the definition of what I describe as a Strike Wing Forward in the Munster #7 shirt, or when he came off the bench.
What does this mean? Well, if you were the opposition looking to progress across the field anywhere outside of picking and going, you were very likely to be tackled by John Hodnett. His work on the defensive side of the ball this season earned him the URC Tackle Machine award for his 96% tackle accuracy on over 250 attempted tackles.
He was also a very sticky defender as a secondary where his low centre of gravity and powerful leg drive made him a really tough guy to clean out.
For me, however, Hodnett’s best work was on the offensive side of the ball where he operated a lot like a power winger. When you hit Hodnett in the wide channels he made ground, simple as that. The same things that make him a tricky defender to navigate – low centre of gravity, powerful leg drive – make him an explosive ball carrier with any kind of ground in front of him.
This isn’t a bad tackle attempt at the end there – or in the first GIF – but they’re going low on Hodnett and he’s just too explosive to be taken down like that unless you’re coming from right in front of him.
He reminds me a lot of peak Sean Cronin for his ability to explode outside the defender with the power to shake off any attempted tackle if it’s anything close to side on. It looks like he’s pinballing past defenders when he’s got a good head of steam up and Munster capitalises on that by putting him in the 15m channel on attacking phases.
And the best thing is – he’s only going to get more explosive, more direct and more agile. There’s a lot more to come from the Rock – a lot more.
When it came to effectiveness, influence and a strong story – pushing from Emerging Ireland to scoring the winning try in the final – the TRK Subscribers voted John Hodnett as their Young Player of the Season 22/23.
