Scrum-half with Devine pedigree, Matthew looks primed for great leap forward with Connacht

Timing is everything for a scrum-half and they mark the ever-quickening moments with hurrying hands and fleeting feet.

True, they must occasionally linger, with unpunishable delay, beyond impossibly lengthy caterpillar rucks to launch their aerial bombs.

But they are more characteristically an impatient bunch, clapping hands furiously at endless rucks, either demanding the early release of the ball or pleading with referees as to why it has not.

Or else slapping the bruising beasts of the pack as they herd them like dutiful cattle in the rolling maul.

Often, they are as vital to a cause as the nominally pivotal 10s; it is they who so often receive the ball first from the forwards, before releasing it to the outside backs.

Sometimes, they just want to do everything themselves. So it was when Irish rugby’s latest graduate, Matthew Devine, announced himself to the wider world in Connacht colours last Saturday.

​Not once, but twice, did he snipe and scamper and scurry to snatch two thrilling tries in his side’s destruction of hapless Zebre in front of an adoring Galway congress.

His first, a dashing tap-and-go amidst a sea of bodies 10 metres from the line, arrived as his side trailed during a difficult first quarter.

His second also retrieved a lead, from much further out, scampering from the 10-metre line, once more eluding yellow shirts, clattering into each other as the will-o’-the-wisp evaded their flailing clutches.

The visitors may have been shocked by the 22-year-old’s wondrous first start but the home camp were not.

“For us it’s not a surprise,” admits head coach Pete Wilkins of the Academy star handed his first professional contract last week.

“We’ve known his natural confidence which is vital for all scrum-halves.

“I was thrilled, we were all thrilled for Matthew. We’ve seen his potential from early on. He’s been training with the senior squad full-time even though he’s been in the Academy.

“We’ve had plenty of time working with him. It’s never been in doubt that he has those kind of x-factor moments in his game, and that pace too. It was really nice that he got a couple of highlight moments to cap it all off.”

Maybe the rest of us shouldn’t have been so stunned. After all, he has the pedigree.

Dad Mike was a buccaneering Buccaneer in the early halcyon AIL days; a legendary figure at the Athlone club, he was their first captain.

He was good enough to play for his province, too, once scoring a hat-trick against Munster.

Like so many in the midlands, geographical and sporting identity is often split. Shannonbridge borders Offaly, Roscommon and Galway; most of the parish population resides east of the Shannon.

Mike also played Gaelic football and was a member of the Offaly panel that won the All-Ireland U-21 football title in 1988.

Matthew and his brother, John, a midfielder who joined the Connacht Academy at the same time, won the Connacht Schools Senior Cup with Garbally College in 2020, a few years after their eldest brother Joseph had picked up a winner’s medal.

Mike nurtured them in both codes during their teenage years, but narrowed the focus in rugby, specifically during their Garbally days, thence to Ballinasloe.

Matthew was the sole western representative in Richie Murphy’s 2022 U-20 Six Nations Grand Slam winners; John repeated the feat last year before featuring in the World U-20 final, scoring a try in the France loss.

Matthew is now primed to make the great leap forward.

“He’s done his time learning, not just about the flow of the game at senior level but also working with the experienced 10s and facilitating the team playing,” says Wilkins.

“And that’s always the challenge for players like this, they haven’t had time in the saddle around game-management and relentlessness across the phases. And I thought he handled that brilliantly.

“For our pathways with the Academy players coming through, it’s crucial and part of our identity.

“It’s very good timing that he is the latest one of those, especially with Michael McDonald out for a period with injury. We are investing in him with the contract we’ve offered him from next season onwards.

“He’s certainly got the ability for the stage he is at in his career. The important bit will be as he gets more time in the saddle, he learns all of those nuances around game-management and understanding the flow and momentum.

“Some of that is literally just time on the field, it won’t be perfect by any means, but he’s got off to a really good start.”

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