He walked onto the pitch wearing a smile and he left the pitch with an even bigger grin on his face.
Maybe it was because his side had won, maybe it was because they had progressed to the semi-finals, maybe he had reached a level of contentment with what he had achieved at Thomond Park or maybe he was just being Simon Zebo and that’s what Simon Zebo does. He smiles.
Zebo’s happy-go-lucky demeanour will be missed at Munster next season as he’s so often been the release valve to a province that has achieved so much of their success through building pressure.
In a team that wins so many games by breaking down the opposition with their intensity, Zebo was often this free spirit that could be seen wandering around the Munster backline with little worry in his world and the confidence to try anything that he wanted. He was this lovable rogue in a team that thrived from being run like a military platoon.
Whether it was catching chip kicks with one hand against Stade Francais, throwing flick passes against Sale to create one more try or chipping the defence, regathering the ball and firing a skip pass to Keith Earls in his final home game against Edinburgh, Zebo has this natural ability to excite.
Is le CLG Corcaigh a cheart do @SimonZebo dul in áit Racing 92 @Munsterrugby #MUNvEDI pic.twitter.com/qBZSjFRWBv
— Spórt TG4 (@SportTG4) May 5, 2018
Maybe it jumps out at us because of how rigid modern rugby can be or maybe it was because he had such a different style to the prototypical Irish full-backs that came before him, but he reminded us on so many occassions of how fun sport can be.
That it doesn’t always have to be defined by fine margins, rigid structures and be a game of inches, sometimes it can just be a player having the confidence to express themselves without fear of persecution or what the consequences may be for making a mistake.
It’s an attitude that probably cost Zebo with Ireland as Joe Schmidt often sided with the reliable Rob Kearney instead of him, but at Thomond Park, he was free to create and encouraged to do so.
“Zeebs is a fantastic bloke and he needs to be embraced for what he is,” former Munster coach Rob Penney once said of Zebo.
“He’s not your quintessential rugby man, and you’d never want him to be. Zeebs is loving the football, and that’s all you ask of your players. He just loves being out on the footy field.
“He loves being at Thomond Park in front of the Munster crowd. They embrace him for who he is. Now he’s just got to be consistent on and off the field to prove to other people that he’s ready to be an international footballer.”
He loved the Munster crowd and they loved him back.
Simon Zebo hails the fans after helping Munster beat Pro14 Conference A leaders Glasgow Warriors 21-10 in his final game in Cork before leaving for Racing 92. https://t.co/P97oPJn5rL https://t.co/IrXk7e68lg
— eir Sport (@eirSport) February 24, 2018
Penney was often criticised for trying to play a more expansive game while he was at Munster but it was really the losses that were held against him.
Connacht fans weren’t complaining about style when Pat Lam guided them to a PRO12 title by playing an expansive and attacking brand of rugby.
It didn’t work for Penney at Munster but it did work for Zebo who clearly took encouragement from his former coach’s backing in what was the most critical and formative years of his development.
At 28, Simon Zebo is what he is as a rugby player. You can’t change his instincts or try and force him to cut out the parts of his game that make him the player that he is.
Joe Schmidt, the coach that wants players to know what ruck they should be hitting in five phases time, tried to get Zebo to warm to his structure and he was met with resistance.
“I said to him that I couldn’t play in such a rigid structure. I can’t play like that,” Zebo said in an interview earlier this year.
“With Munster, I’m free to try things, to play the moves that I see. I don’t have any shackles.
“Joe is a super coach who has had great success with Ireland. We already talked about it face-to-face. I said to him that I couldn’t play in such a rigid structure. I can’t play like that.
“Winning is important but for me it’s also important to do it in a certain way. But if you ask me to pick between losing in style or winning ugly, I’d choose the second option.”
It sums up Zebo as a player and as a person. It’s as much about how you do something as much as what you do.
In professional sport, winning trumps everything. It ultimately sells tickets and keeps coaches and players in a job.
But how you win and the manner in which you do so is how you earn the affection of the fans.
I have not watched one Mohamed Salah interview all season, there’s really only a handful of Premier League players that really make for a good watch when a microphone is put in front of them, but every time Salah plays for Liverpool there is something magnetic about the way he plays football.
This relatively slender Egyptian that has a way of beating defenders at pace and placing the ball into the back of the net with a level of speed, precision and grace that is matched by very few others in his sport.
There’s players that excite in world rugby. Damian McKenzie is a livewire for New Zealand. Danny Cipriani is fantastic playmaker for Wasps and his teammate Christian Wade is electric when he receives the ball while Glasgow’s Nikola Matawalu could step you in a phonebox.
Irish Rugby traditionally doesn’t produce a lot of players of this ilk, although if more Jordan Larmour’s and Joey Carbery’s come along maybe that theory will need a reassessment, but on Saturday, Munster fans had one last chance to say goodbye to one of these players. One of the most exciting players that the province has ever produced.
Zebo was one to watch and one that will be sorely missed by those in the dressing room, the coaches box, the stands at Thomond Park and those that just like to put their feet up on the couch on a sunny Saturday and be entertained for a few hours.
Those people may miss him the most when he leaves for Racing next season.
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