Cork native Shane Daly is pictured with his URC Ironman award ahead of Munster's semi-final showdown with Glasgow Warriors this weekend
Munster utility back Shane Daly is the first Irish winner of a 2023/24 BKT United Rugby Championship award, having been named the URC Ironman for this year.
Daly had a superb run of starting all 18 URC games for Munster during the regular season, racking up 1430 minutes to become the Ironman for this season.
The only 10 minutes he missed during the URC’s regular season were due to a yellow card, and he also played the full 80 minutes of last week’s quarter-final win over the Ospreys. They host Glasgow Warriors in Saturday’s semi-final at Thomond Park – tickets are available here.
The 27-year-old, who has two Ireland caps to his name, is the only Irish provincial player to start in all 18 rounds of the United Rugby Championship in the current campaign.
He finished ahead of his former Munster team-mate, Ben Healy, who racked up 1421 minutes in his first season for Edinburgh, and Emirate Lions full-back Quane Horn, who played 1359 minutes for the South African side.
“Shane is ‘Mr Reliable’, isn’t he?,” said Munster defence coach Denis Leamy. “He’s a fantastic rugby player. Very, very smart. I consider him a really good defender.
“He’s been doing some excellent things on the edges for us over the last 18 months. His ability to judge the back-field, to field the play and obviously defend in the front line as well and his ability to stay calm, not show too many early pictures and almost tell lies in what he’s doing (stands out).
“Shane is a top class player in fairness to him. He’s one of the smartest players I’ve had the pleasure of working with.”
As well as earning Test caps against Georgia and Japan in 2020 and 2021 respectively, the former Ireland Sevens international was part of the Emerging Ireland tour to South Africa in 2022, before playing for Ireland ‘A’ against a New Zealand XV that November.
Be sure to follow all the URC Awards announcements using the hashtag #URCAwards.
Tackle Machine: Alessandro Izekor (Benetton)
Turnover King: Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh)
Gilbert Golden Boot: Chris Smith (Vodacom Bulls)
OFX Top Try Scorer: Johnny Matthews (Glasgow Warriors)
Ironman: Shane Daly (Munster)
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