IF YOU’RE TO judge a player’s season by the number of starts they get for their club, 2023/24 was the best of Jordan Larmour’s career with Leinster.
He had 19 starts in the URC and Champions Cup, including all eight of his province’s games in the latter, scoring a career-best 10 tries along the way.
Larmour was named on the right wing in the URC’s official team of the season but more important to him would have been the fact that he relaunched his Ireland career with two caps during this year’s Six Nations.
His appearance off the bench against Italy ended a two-and-a-half-year wait to add to his Ireland caps, while there was also a last-minute start at fullback against Scotland on the last day of the championship after Hugo Keenan was ruled out during the warm-up.
Jordan Larmour was part of Ireland’s tour to South Africa in July but didn’t get a chance to build on his 32 Test caps there.
So though he was disappointed to be part of a Leinster team that came up short in the URC and Champions Cup, you can understand why Larmour loved last season.
“Staying injury-free gave me that opportunity to start big games, that definitely got my confidence up,” says the 27-year-old.
“I was back playing with a smile on my face, I was loving every second of it. Hopefully, it’s the same this season.”
The new campaign began solidly as Larmour started on the left wing and scored a try in Leinster’s bonus-point win over Edinburgh and he’ll be hoping to build on that against the Dragons tomorrow at the Aviva Stadium.
Larmour predominantly featured on the right wing last season, with 14 of his starts coming in the number 14 shirt, but he had two outings at fullback as well as featuring on the left wing three times.
He even has some history as an outside centre and with Leinster opting for 6/2 bench splits more often since Jacques Nienaber’s arrival, that kind of flexibility is useful.
That said, it now seems clear that Larmour is at his best on the wing, where there are great demands within Nienaber’s defensive system. In recent years, Larmour had identified his defence as part of the game where he could make big improvements and he feels like ‘extras’ on his tackle technique before and after training have made a difference.
“I really enjoy the system we’re in at the moment,” says Larmour. “We’re obviously going that little bit harder and a big thing is chasing every moment.
“If you make a mistake, just get back up and chase hard. If you make a read, kinda like on the weekend when they played a play, the ball hit the ground and bounced, yer man beat me on the outside but I just chased that moment and tackled Darcy Graham.
“Chasing lost causes is an area I’ve been working on, been mindful of. Working hard in D is an area I was looking at.
As Larmour points out, there are moments when Leinster’s ultra-aggressive system results in mistakes but he believes it’s worth it.
“It’s a little bit like high risk/high reward. At the weekend, we got it wrong a few times and they scored in the corner. It comes with the territory but as long as we’re all on the same page as a backline unit and as a team, we give ourselves the best opportunity.
“But listen, sometimes we get it right and knock them back 10 yards. Sometimes we get it wrong and they score in the corner so it’s more high risk/high reward but I love defending the way we’re defending.”
On the other side of the ball, Larmour has always been a big threat thanks to his footwork and balance.
He wasn’t aware that he had set a new record for himself with 10 tries last season and says that putting less pressure on himself to make magic happen has been helpful.
“I suppose my point of difference would be taking players on one-on-one, trying to find space, make half-breaks, make linebreaks, set things up. That’s what I’m always trying to do in attack.
“Last season, I was just really focused on taking any opportunity I got with both hands. Not trying to go looking for things – that was a big thing in the past where I would be thinking, ‘I’ve got to go make something happen here’ and then you’re chasing something.
“That’s when you make a mistake, so I’m trying to see the game out in front of me and if an opportunity comes, just trying to take it. That comes with backing myself.
“When I got to play those big games and back-to-back performances, that’s when the confidence is up and you’re like, ‘Yeah, give me the ball, I’ll do it.’”
His stepping ability is great but he seems to overdo it and doesn’t seem to accelerate away like say a Shane Williams or Kolbe once he’s wrong footed the defender. Obviously still a fine player but when he broke through initially, he looked like he could be a world star and that never materialized