Hopes high at Munster's Tom Ahern will travel and get his Ireland cap
Tom Ahern is hoping to lay the jinx that has followed his fledgling Ireland career around the place.The Waterford-born second/back-row is 25 years-of-age now, made his Munster debut against Dragons in 2020 and was almost ever-present for the rest of the season, playing 19 times all told, 10 of them as starts.There wasn't a Munster fan across six counties doubting he was a chip off the right red block and the view was Andy Farrell-endorsed as was called into Ireland panel on a trainee-invite in November 2021.Progress continued as he was with Emerging Ireland in South Africa in September/October 2022 and, unusually, was involved in all three games leading to him being selected for the Ireland A squad that November.However a shoulder injury intervened and,chosen again for the Ireland A to play England earlier this year injury intervened again.Now, having been selected for the Ireland tour to Georgia and Portugal this summer he is on tenterhooks as a tightening hamstring is threatening his participation, so much so the IRFU called in Connacht's Josh Murphy as cover - just in case."I've been unlucky with a couple of injuries, it's happened a couple of times now and obviously initially you're very disappointed but that's the nature of the game to be fair," he says."I was buzzing when I got called up to the Six Nations again this year even though it was just a week, I was delighted to be up here, just working with the class coaches, class players ."It definitely gave me a bit of confidence to push on the rest of the season and hopefully end up back here."You've got to pick yourself back up. I've got a good support system around me and I'm going to move past that eventually and focus on the next job and try to eventually get back up here again.''I'm just taking these next couple of weeks in my stride and overall just delighted to be up here.'To have been chosen for Ireland was a post-season boost following a trying time at Munster in both the Champions Cup where they lost an away quarter to Bordeaux and the URC where they lost in a quarter-final penalty shoot at Sharks.'It obviously didn't end the way that we wanted it. It's a tough way to go out but we were playing good rugby towards the end of the season and a lot of the lads that are up here were playing good ball as well.'So, we can take the confidence from everybody individually playing well and so hopefully we can bring it up here now.'There were also some eyebrows raised initially as the club coaching staff began to ease him from second-row to the far more dynamic back-row slot.'Definitely got a lot more comfortable there, I've had good lads in Munster, the likes of Pete (O'Mahony), who's very helpful towards my game, when I was playing no6.
"I've Denis Leamy who is very helpful to me as well so definitely a lot more comfortable there this season. It's whichever for me, I'm happy to do either."I suppose down in Munster it's a bit different to up here, I think up here everybody in the pack is in the middle of the field working together, while back in Munster it's usually the two back-rows that are holding the edges a bit more."So you're playing out wide a bit more and it's really different down in Munster. Up here it's kind of similar enough playing second-row or back row.'An interesting observation given his non-rugby background."Nobody played rugby in my family, it was all GAA, a big GAA family. I played hurling football with my local club, Ardmore, until I was about 16 and then once I kind of got into the East Munster set-up."It was just I'd gone to a rugby summer camp in the town where my mum's from and got a love for it there and just kept playing all the way up through, down in Youghal, down in Dungarvan, down in Waterpark.
"That's kind of my underage background before I moved up to Limerick and into the Academy and played for Shannon then as well.As mentioned that Ireland A and Ireland senior cap has been within reach but that does mean hasn't played against top international opposition - there was the Munster-All Blacks game in October 2024, quite the close run thing."What they definitely brought that day was a lot of physicality and it kind of initially caught us off guard and we didn't perform how we wanted on that day but I'd say the big takeaway was the physicality aspect."They were quality players we played that day and we had the front up and like I said the physicality aspect and the speed of ball was a serious pace as well."I'd imagine they'd (Georgia/Portugal) be similar enough now in the next couple of games. Both those teams work off massive physicality, it would be an increase in tempo from the club game."
IRELAND SUMMER TOUR SCHEDULESaturday, 5th July: Georgia v Ireland, Mikheil Meskhi Stadium, Tbilisi (kick off 9pm local time, 6pm Irish time);Saturday, 12th July: Portugal v Ireland, Estádio Nacional do Jamor, Lisbon (kick off 7pm local, same Irish time)Ireland Men's Squad – Summer Tour 2025, departing for Tbilisi on Wednesday, 2nd July.Player/Club/Province/CapsBacks (14): Shayne Bolton (Connacht)*, Craig Casey (Shannon/Munster)(captain)(18), Jack Crowley (Cork Constitution/Munster)(24), Nathan Doak (Banbridge/Ulster)*, Ciaran Frawley (UCD/Leinster)(8), Hugh Gavin (Galwegians/Connacht)*, Stuart McCloskey (Bangor/Ulster)(19), Ben Murphy (Clontarf/Connacht)*, Calvin Nash (Young Munster/Munster)(10), Jimmy O'Brien (Naas/Leinster)(8), Tommy O'Brien (UCD/Leinster)*, Jamie Osborne (Naas/Leinster)(7), Sam Prendergast (Lansdowne/Leinster)(8), Jacob Stockdale (Lurgan/Ulster)(38)Forwards (18): Tom Ahern (Shannon/Munster)*, Jack Aungier (Lansdowne/Connacht)*, Ryan Baird (Dublin University/Leinster)(27), Jack Boyle (UCD/Leinster)(2), Thomas Clarkson (Dublin University/Leinster)(6), Gavin Coombes (Young Munster/Munster)(2), Max Deegan (Lansdowne/Leinster)(2), Cormac Izuchukwu (Ballynahinch/Ulster)(1), Alex Kendellen (UCC/Munster)*, Gus McCarthy (UCD/Leinster)(4), Paddy McCarthy (Dublin University/Leinster)*, Michael Milne (UCD/Munster)*, Darragh Murray (Buccaneers/Connacht)*, Tom O'Toole (Ballynahinch/Ulster)(16), Cian Prendergast (UCD/Connacht)(4), Stephen Smyth (Old Wesley/Leinster)*, Tom Stewart (Ballynahinch/Ulster)(2), Nick Timoney (Banbridge/Ulster)(3)
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