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Patient Thomas Clarkson ready to put his hand up for Ireland
Patient Thomas Clarkson ready to put his hand up for Ireland

Irish Times

time12-07-2025

  • Sport
  • Irish Times

Patient Thomas Clarkson ready to put his hand up for Ireland

Top Cat! The most effectual! Top Cat! Who's intellectual! Close friends get to call him 'TC,' Providing it's with dignity! READ MORE Thomas Clarkson , known as TC to his team-mates and friends, gets the reference to the lyrics of the 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon, Top Cat. Leinster forwards coach Robin McBryde got there first when he played the theme tune for the 25-year-old tighthead prop. He's a good sport when the tune breaches the peace in the sweaty confines of a Portakabin at Ireland 's training ground on the outskirts of Lisbon. He occasionally mops his brow and it's nothing to do with the questions, rather the lack of air conditioning in 30 plus degree temperatures. Clarkson lived in Brittas Bay until he was nine, played rugby for Wicklow RFC, before his family – dad Finbarr, mum Nina, and his siblings, Catey, Freddie and Dominic – moved to Blackrock where he went to school, first in Willow Park and then in the senior school. He swam competitively, butterfly his stroke of choice, before rugby subsumed his interest. Rugby was a good fit. 'I was always the bigger kid, so I suppose it was always kind of fun just running through. I always got the ball on tap penalties and stuff,' Clarkson explains. His current Ireland team-mate Nick Timoney coached him in first year. He won a Schools Senior Cup under Liam Turner's captaincy, a Grand Slam with the Irish under-20s in 2019 (the first of two years on the age-grade team), and toured South Africa with Emerging Ireland in 2022. Smaller in stature relative to the behemoths he faced when playing international age-grade rugby, he quickly realised that good technique was a prerequisite. Thomas Clarkson (right) with Peter O'Mahony during Ireland's Autumn Nations fixture against Argentina at the Aviva last November. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho 'I was never the biggest, because coming out of school I was pretty small, only 110kg or something like that. I'm 128kg (now), or something like that. There were lads (at under-20s) that had played (in the French) Top 14 and the (English) Premiership. They were up in the 120kgs then, so I knew I had to be technically good.' Clarkson smiles in recounting the struggle, not so much putting on size but muscle. 'I was pretty chubby leaving school. I got put into fat camp with Dave Fagan (the late Leinster strength & conditioning coach). 'I was put on gym-heavy programmes, trying to put on muscle and get stronger. You see some of lads coming through now, like (Alex) Usanov and Paddy (McCarthy), putting up big numbers in the gym. I was nowhere near that. It's something I had to work on a lot over the last few years. It's probably why it took me a few years before I started playing in bigger games and capped and stuff. 'You can put on loads of weight, and it can be bad weight. You can't move with it on. I think I took it a bit slower, it took me a few years to put it on. Now, I feel like I can move better than when I was lighter.' Ireland's interim head coach Paul O'Connell referenced Clarkson's diligence in working to get the right body shape for a tighthead prop. 'He's been excellent for us. We had him on the Emerging Ireland tour and he's a considerably bigger man since then. Obviously, he's in a pushing competition there in the front row. 'He's worked really hard, even from the Six Nations to the summer tour, he looked even in better shape again and it's a great sign of a guy because he's in that position where he's trying to put on size. It can be hard work at times when you're playing games and training. 'Players know good players. Johnny (Sexton) would have always said that (Clarkson) is a very good footballer, and paid him compliments about his all-round game. He's very comfortable on the ball. He had a few good, tough carries (in Tbilisi), particularly early in the game. Like all these guys they just need time in the saddle. 'There's plenty of things from the game he needs to work on, a little bit on maul defence, but he gets a chance now to go and do it again and show that he can improve.' Thomas Clarkson in action for Leinster against the Bulls in the URC final in June. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho Clarkson made his Leinster debut five years ago and by his own admission he wasn't ready. He isn't patient by nature. 'It was frustrating. I made my debut quite early. There were a few injuries. I probably got thrown in before I'd shown I was ready. 'The fact that I got a taste of that so early, I didn't have to wait so long to break through. It's been frustrating. There have been a few lows.' He continued: 'At the end of the 2023 season, I had a run of games (for Leinster) where the scrums went really badly. It was during the Six Nations (and then) we went to South Africa, I got absolutely destroyed. '(It's the) worst place to go if you're low on confidence. That was probably the lowest. Since then, I've been building nicely.' It taught Clarkson resilience. The lessons were occasionally painful, but the quality of the person and the player ensured he made progress. The rehabilitation process was overseen by Cian Healy, Andrew Porter, Tadhg Furlong and Rabah Slimani in Leinster training. 'You're scrumming against (them), you must learn. When you do get to the standard it gives you confidence for the matches.' Psychologically it allowed Clarkson to shed any doubts. The last couple of years he's kicked on, winning his first Ireland cap against Argentina last November having originally been brought into the squad as a training panellist. Injuries within the squad provided the opportunity, but Clarkson grabbed it with both hands. In Lisbon he will win his eighth cap, a tally he's accumulated in eight months. He's had to remain patient too. 'Tadhg (Furlong) and Slim (Rabah Slimani) got the nod for those few European games. I was getting the matches in between and felt like I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to play well. It wasn't happening and I was feeling a bit low about it. The Glasgow game was when I felt that was probably my best game. 'Different things are expected of you (with Ireland). I want to put my hand up here. These are probably lesser profile games for the public but it's important for me that I can come in off the back of playing well for Leinster and translate it to playing well (for Ireland). 'You're not just going to walk in having played well on the outside. Obviously, they have the lads that they can trust, and they've been in the system for years.' He's earning that faith and trust, game by game. And maybe one day very soon, like Top Cat, Clarkson can become 'the indisputable leader of the gang'.

Leinster aiming to 'reset' in bid to claim first URC title
Leinster aiming to 'reset' in bid to claim first URC title

Irish Examiner

time27-05-2025

  • Sport
  • Irish Examiner

Leinster aiming to 'reset' in bid to claim first URC title

There is a stripped-back simplicity about the month for Leinster. The Champions Cup final, decided without their input for the first time since 2021, is behind us. The URC regular season has given way to the playoffs. The Lions, squad announced, has been put on ice. There are no other detours or subplots for the province now, just the opportunity of three successive home ties, starting with Saturday's quarter-final against the Scarlets and, they hope, culminating with a first URC title in the same Aviva Stadium a fortnight later. 'It's got to be something of a reset because the last game against Glasgow, the rules were slightly different where you got points for scoring five points or whatever, or finishing within a certain amount, but they're gone now,' said scrum coach Robin McBryde. 'This is knockout rugby, the stakes are a little bit higher and if we're good enough to win this week we'll get an opportunity to play next week, and if we're good enough the following week we'll get to play again.' It really is that simple. Or should be. Talk of a reset makes sense given the pain endured in that Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton Saints earlier this month. The imponderable is whether that day has left any scars deep and debilitating enough to undo Leinster in the short term. The very act of watching, or avoiding, last weekend's decider between the Saints and Bordeaux-Begles will have reinforced the sense of loss and disappointment, even if McBryde, for one, was able to park himself in front of the box and drink it all in. 'Normally when I watch a game of rugby, I watch it through a coach's eyes because of all the analysis work that you do. Sometimes you find it quite hard to switch off without being drawn into the front row or whatever. 'But for whatever reason on Saturday I was able to watch it just as a rugby supporter. I just thought it was a great occasion. I know the stadium lends itself… With the roof closed it was a great atmosphere etc. 'The nature of the game, there was a lot of ebb and flow, there were quite a few mistakes from both teams really but then Bordeaux were just able to close them out at the end. But I was able to watch it.' Leinster have lost all three league semi-finals since the PRO14 morphed into the URC but their record in the last eight round has been impeccable with Ulster, Sharks and Glasgow routed by a combined score of 154-39, all of them played in Dublin. It's just over a month since Scarlets upset a third-string Leinster side in Wales but nothing similar is mappable now, even with Robbie Henshaw confirmed as sidelined for the rest of the club season with a knee problem and Tadhg Furlong out with a minor calf injury. That latter, it must be stressed, is not the same calf that kept the Ireland tighthead on the treatment table for such long spells this season. His British and Irish Lions tour place is not in any way in jeopardy as a result of the issue, according to Leinster. And as for Scarlets? Well, Leinster have often been the boy who called wolf before games like these but they are leaning on that 35-22 loss last month in Parc y Scarlets as justification for any cautious utterances ahead of the task to come. 'There was a lot in that game, but I am not going to take it away from the Scarlets,' said McBryde who spent over a decade playing with the Llanelli/Scarlets club. 'They had a good game plan and stuck to it. They proved good value for [the win]. 'Their consistency in selection, they hardly make any changes if any at all to the starting 15, the starting pack in particular. So they're cohesive, a tough nut to crack. They're comfortable with their game, the way they go about things.'

Scarlets defeat proves Leinster not 'infallible', says Robin McBryde
Scarlets defeat proves Leinster not 'infallible', says Robin McBryde

RTÉ News​

time28-04-2025

  • Sport
  • RTÉ News​

Scarlets defeat proves Leinster not 'infallible', says Robin McBryde

Robin McBryde reckons Leinster's loss to Scarlets wasn't necessarily a "bad thing" in the context of the team's overall goals as they move into the business end of the season. Leinster missed out on the opportunity to cement a top-place finish in the BKT United Rugby Championship when they fell to a 35-22 defeat at Scarlets at the weekend. Prior to that, Leo Cullen's men had scored 24 tries and conceded just two in huge wins over Harlequins and Glasgow in the Investec Champions Cup, and Ulster in the URC. On Saturday, Leinster, beaten in the last three finals, face a repeat of last season's European semi-final when Northampton Saints visit Aviva Stadium (5.30pm, live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player). "I don't think it's a bad thing that we had a shot across the bows last week against the Scarlets," assistant coach McBryde told RTÉ Sport. "They were better than us on the day, they played well and it sort of put everybody back on their toes. "Maybe in the long run it's not a bad thing that we've had that little bit of a warning shot, that things we thought were locked and loaded, or signed and sealed, that we're not quite infallible as we thought. "It's definitely put everybody back on their toes. We need to get more consistency, build intensity and be focussed on the task at hand. "There's a big focus on the here and now. What's happened in the past, we can't change and we can't look too far forward. "A lot of guys had an opportunity last week against the Scarlets and we've all done a little bit of soul-searching after that game, asking how we could have done things better." Leinster look set to continue without Ireland lock James Ryan but will welcome back RG Snyman (above), who had missed the trip to Wales with a dead leg. Will Connors has been ruled out. The Saints are seventh in the Premiership but have impressed in Europe, recording wins over Castres twice, Bulls, Munster and Clermont. After surviving a late scare in last year's semi-final meeting at Croke Park, McBryde says Leinster won't underestimate Phil Dowson's side. "They are a very dangerous attacking outfit, they are very comfortable in how they approach the game, their mindset, they do everything very well at pace," said the former Wales hooker. "We are going to have to have our wits about us. I'm sure they are going to try and run us ragged. "We're going to have to try and be one step ahead and have a good feel for what's coming."

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