THERE’S NO DOUBT thousands of players who would gladly swap with Tomás O’Leary, but there’s something disproportionate about his stats that just won’t sit right.
The Corkman’s star burned brightly for a few perfect years; a Heineken Cup, a Grand Slam the things most Irish rugby players can only ever dream of. But the competitor in him looks at the lower tallies; 127 Munster caps and only 24 for Ireland.
O'Leary in action against Munster last year, he'll be up against familiar opposition again in Waterford tomorrow. Billy Stickland / INPHO
Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
“As a sportsman you always want more and you always think you could achieve more,” O’Leary said while launching a partnership between London Irish and Setanta Sports.
“That’s my lot. Everyone always wants more, but look, I’m quite happy with what I’ve achieved. We’ll see what else happens, but I’m pretty happy.
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He’ll never rule out increasing those numbers, but he’s enough of a realist to accept that foreign-based Irish internationals are an extremely rare commodity. Besides, as good as Ireland were in 2014, they still couldn’t match the magnitude of a Grand Slam. Now that was history.
“Once I retire that will be a highlight. The first time in 61 years… it was awesome to be part of that. I got plenty of bang for my buck in terms of the amount of caps I got and the experiences I had were awesome so it’s pretty cool.”
The ‘R’ word. O’Leary is only 30, but this is what we do to sportsmen. Force them to think about the future ahead when they like to reside in the moment.
With one year to go of his three at London Irish, the Corkman still has at least one more contract to see out before it comes. So, even though his ex-teammates are filling prominent coaching positions across Europe, it’s understandable that he hasn’t yet considered whether coaching is a path he may find himself treading by the end of this decade.
There’s too much going on in the here and now to be worrying about the endgame. The scrum-half is a trailblazer of sorts, moving to London Irish to help reignite the club’s beacon for Exiles before the Mick Crossan-fronted consortium took over late last year.
Though Ian Humphreys has returned back across the Irish Sea, the arrival of Tom Court, Eoin Griffin and Conor Gilsenan takes the number of Irish-qualified players at the club to nine (… 10 if you count Shane Geraghty).
Excellence
It all makes for a healthy rugby community living around Richmond, within a short drive of Irish’s new state-of-the-art training base. Up to £11 million has been spent turning a 57-acre site into a centre of excellence complete with an enormous gym, six junior pitches, one artificial and another six full-sized pitches.
“The old Sunbury would have been a bit archaic,” says O’Leary citing the club’s 80-year association with its old amateur base.
“There was a lot of tradition and history around it, that’s important. But in terms of professionalism and moving forward and embracing a modern professional team now we’re top of the pile in terms of facilities in terms of gym, training pitches and everything is there as a squad for us to push on.”
That facility has put O’Leary in position to start this season fighting fit and as hungry as the much younger men without a medal to their name who will play by his side. First up will be the familiar opposition of Munster, but in the unfamiliar setting of Waterford, where O’Leary has never played rugby in before.
His greatest achievements may be behind him, but O’Leary is helping a second club to leave a legacy.
In total 69 exclusively live games from the Aviva Premiership will be shown on BT Sport 1 – BT Sport 2 & ESPN all now available to viewers in the Republic of Ireland as part of the Setanta Sports Pack.
New subscribers can sign up to Setanta Sports for just €1.
Tomás O'Leary leaving a legacy with London Irish
THERE’S NO DOUBT thousands of players who would gladly swap with Tomás O’Leary, but there’s something disproportionate about his stats that just won’t sit right.
The Corkman’s star burned brightly for a few perfect years; a Heineken Cup, a Grand Slam the things most Irish rugby players can only ever dream of. But the competitor in him looks at the lower tallies; 127 Munster caps and only 24 for Ireland.
“As a sportsman you always want more and you always think you could achieve more,” O’Leary said while launching a partnership between London Irish and Setanta Sports.
He’ll never rule out increasing those numbers, but he’s enough of a realist to accept that foreign-based Irish internationals are an extremely rare commodity. Besides, as good as Ireland were in 2014, they still couldn’t match the magnitude of a Grand Slam. Now that was history.
The ‘R’ word. O’Leary is only 30, but this is what we do to sportsmen. Force them to think about the future ahead when they like to reside in the moment.
With one year to go of his three at London Irish, the Corkman still has at least one more contract to see out before it comes. So, even though his ex-teammates are filling prominent coaching positions across Europe, it’s understandable that he hasn’t yet considered whether coaching is a path he may find himself treading by the end of this decade.
There’s too much going on in the here and now to be worrying about the endgame. The scrum-half is a trailblazer of sorts, moving to London Irish to help reignite the club’s beacon for Exiles before the Mick Crossan-fronted consortium took over late last year.
Though Ian Humphreys has returned back across the Irish Sea, the arrival of Tom Court, Eoin Griffin and Conor Gilsenan takes the number of Irish-qualified players at the club to nine (… 10 if you count Shane Geraghty).
Excellence
It all makes for a healthy rugby community living around Richmond, within a short drive of Irish’s new state-of-the-art training base. Up to £11 million has been spent turning a 57-acre site into a centre of excellence complete with an enormous gym, six junior pitches, one artificial and another six full-sized pitches.
“The old Sunbury would have been a bit archaic,” says O’Leary citing the club’s 80-year association with its old amateur base.
“There was a lot of tradition and history around it, that’s important. But in terms of professionalism and moving forward and embracing a modern professional team now we’re top of the pile in terms of facilities in terms of gym, training pitches and everything is there as a squad for us to push on.”
That facility has put O’Leary in position to start this season fighting fit and as hungry as the much younger men without a medal to their name who will play by his side. First up will be the familiar opposition of Munster, but in the unfamiliar setting of Waterford, where O’Leary has never played rugby in before.
His greatest achievements may be behind him, but O’Leary is helping a second club to leave a legacy.
‘Everyone says we’re in transition, but players are here to win trophies’ – Axel Foley
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Aviva Premiership Exiles London Irish tol Tomas O'Leary