
'This year it's gone very well'- Italian call a distant memory for new Lion Thomas Clarkson
Fun fact: The 25-year-old's full name is actually Tommaso Clarkson, with his mother Nina Cafolla coming from a small town between Rome and Naples.
At the start of the 2023/24 season, the Italians came calling.
Clarkson turned down the offer, but with the tighthead prop yet to get his full break at Leinster, his qualification to play for Italy was kept in his back pocket, just in case.
"They came looking for me, but I'd just signed a new contract with Leinster," he said, after making his Lions debut against the First Nations and Pasifika XV on Tuesday night.
"I didn't end it. I thought it could be open at some point down the line, but obviously, this year it's gone very well."
It's been a fast 12 months for Clarkson. A run of games to start the season, and injuries elsewhere, saw him brought into the Ireland squad for the first time in November as a training panellist, before he was retained after the training camp and impressed in two appearances off the bench against Argentina and Fiji.
More big appearances came in the Champions Cup, and four more Irish caps followed in the Six Nations, before he produced arguably his best Leinster performance in their URC final win against the Bulls, a game he says was the moment where he believes he arrived.
"It all kind of just clicked [that day] and then kept that momentum going," he said.
"That was the first game when I was like, 'that was a proper performance'."
He thought he finished the season with two more Irish caps against Georgia and Portugal, scoring a try in the second of those wins, and it was while celebrating that win with a few beers in the early hours of the morning in Lisbon that he received an urgent message from Andy Farrell.
"It was like: 'ring me when you're awake', so I said 'oh yeah, grand'. Then Paulie [Paul O'Connell] rang me and was like, 'ring him right now!'
"So yeah, I had to just compose myself and go outside.
"I told Jack Boyle and then just legged it."
His dream Lions call-up wasn't met with universal warmth outside of Ireland, mainly due to the him being the 18th Ireland international drafted in by Farrell on this tour, and the third tighthead prop.
Farrell made a point of namechecking Clarkson (above) after last night's game, insisting he was very much the "next cab on the rank" when he was called into the group, and the player says that message has been drilled into him by the coaching staff.
"It wasn't a kind of 'nepo' selection if you'd call it that," Clarkson added.
"It was just nice to hear going into it. We were bouncing into the game.
"I benefited from Tadhg [Furlong] being injured at the end of the season, definitely benefited from that.
"But I'd like to think I took the opportunity.
"I've been kind of understudied to Tadhg for a good few years now. He's consistently been probably the best tighthead in the world over the last few years.
"It's been unbelievable being there, just around him.
"Rabah's [Rabah Slimani] come in, probably offered something a bit different, where he's 100% scrum.
"Tadhg obviously has an array of different stuff that he brings to it. Whereas Rabah, when you're scrumming against him in training, it's all or nothing against him."
While the breaks have fallen his way this season, he served a long apprenticeship at the province, in large part down to playing behind Furlong, as well as Michael Ala'alatoa in previous years.
Remarkably, he was lining out for Blackrock College in Division 1B of the Energia All-Ireland League as recently as January 2024.
Asked if he though playing for the Lions was on the cards even six months ago, he admitted "not a hope!".
"I made my Leinster debut five years ago now, so I've been waiting a long time," he said.
"The fact that when it has come, it's all come at once is a bit crazy. Because I went through a good few years of not getting a sniff in at all really. So yeah, it's mad.
"I put a lot of work into getting it, so any time I did get a shot, there was a whole lot of work behind it. So it felt like it just kind of rolled into another.
"Once I got a foot in the door, I think I was trying to open it fully."
Barring a couple of injuries, it's likely Clarkson has now finally finished his gruelling, 27-game season, and will head home with something to remember it by.
"It's crazy, 886," he says, repeating the number stitched into his red and gold Lions cap after Tuesday's win.
"I didn't even know they did caps if you don't play in the Test. It's some energy."
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Irish Times
18 minutes ago
- Irish Times
Matt Williams: Lions' classless act had the hallmark of imperialists touring their convict colony
On Saturday, inside the imposing Melbourne Cricket Ground, the Wallabies must win to keep the series alive or forever have their names etched into the history books as losers. The Australians are not without hope. During the second half of the first Test , and last Tuesday against the First Nations and Pasifika , the Lions appeared to be a group at the end of a very long tour and an even longer season. They are tiring. The six changes to their team for this match confirm that. At the start of the tour, the Lions management were unhappy that there weren't enough Wallabies players being made available to lift the standards in the provincial teams. Yet this week, the same Lions management objected to the selection of the former Bordeaux player Pete Samu for the First Nations and Pasifika. READ MORE Andy Farrell's Lions fire the first shot in Australia Listen | 46:27 Samu has returned to Australia to play with the Waratahs next season. As the former Australian international did not play in the Super Rugby competition this season, he fell outside the guidelines of the pre-tour agreements. Another way of looking at it would be that the Lions don't want Samu match fit for the third Test. In Australia, this has been seen as the Lions acting with all the vestiges of imperialists touring their convict colony. It was a classless act. The many Samu masks being worn in the crowd on Tuesday night tells you what the locals thought of the Lions' decision. Pete Samu of AUNZ Invitational is tackled by Mack Hansen and Hugo Keenan of the British & Irish Lions. Photograph:Once again this week, there has not been a single interview with a Lions player on the nightly news of the host broadcaster for the series. This is despite the Lions having a touring party of over 90 people. These cultural gaffes are merely adding to the long list of failures from the Lions. They have failed to grasp the importance of giving something back to the game of rugby in Australia. The Lions management has been quick to drag out the fine print of the tour agreement to get Samu out of this week's game. However, I can assure you that the next tour agreement will contain a clause insisting that Lions players are available to the local media on every day of the tour. This week, Clive Woodward accurately described the Wallabies as playing with a losing mentality. Woodward understands that in test match rugby, winners physically dominate their opponent - something that the Wallabies failed to do. He understands that playing with physicality is a mindset. In the opening 25 minutes of the first test, when the Lions grabbed control of the match, the Wallabies were passive, displaying a losing mentality. The greatest example of the losing mindset was early in the match when Ben Curry illegally and dangerously tackled the Wallaby debutant outhalf Tom Lynagh while he was in the air. Tom Curry's controversial tackle on Tom Lynagh in the first Test should have drawn a response from Lynagh's Wallabies teammates. Photograph: Patrick Hamilton/AFP via Getty Images The Wallaby forwards did nothing to Curry, who walked away smiling. He had been given a free ticket to put in a big illegal shot on a nervous young outhalf. While Curry should have been yellow carded, Lynagh's teammates should have made it clear they weren't happy. Owen Farrell has been selected on the bench this week because he is made of far tougher stuff. On Tuesday night, when the First Nations and Pasifika players smashed Darcy Graham over the sideline, Farrell ran in and confronted the offending opposition players. His body language screamed 'not on my watch'. [ The Lions no longer need goodwill in Australia – their brand will carry them through Opens in new window ] The First Nations and Pasifika team turned their aggression levels up into the red zone. They got in among the red team and bashed them up. It was a pleasure to watch and I hope the Wallabies watching in the stands took note. While punching and foul play are now rightly outlawed, teams with players who are more influenced by St Francis of Assisi rather than Mike Tyson rarely come away with the chocolates. In Brisbane, the lack of physical aggression from the Australians was the foundation of their defeat. What smashed the Australians on the scoreboard was that the Lions had completely cracked their opponents' lineout calling code. As the ball left Wallaby hookers' hands, the Lions knew its destination. Put that down to the Lions' brilliant pre-game sleuthing in studying past games and listening to the audio of calls. The Lions' Owen Farrell clashes with Charlie Gamble of the First Nations & Pasifika during Tuesday's match in Melbourne. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho To gain such information in the old days, spies were sent to the opposition training sessions, some disguised as elderly dog walkers with concealed cameras in their handbags. Or there could be video cameras hidden on tripods in vacant corporate boxes at training fields. In modern times, drones have been known to zoom overhead. A few nights before Scotland played Australia in the quarter-final of the 2003 Rugby World Cup, every piece of paper hanging on the walls of the Scottish team room mysteriously disappeared. They were full of tactical information and game-plan notes. Scotland lost to a Wallabies team who seemed to know a lot of Scottish calls. Believe me, it's a jungle out there. The three foundational principles of rugby are fitness, skill and motivation. On Tuesday, we witnessed the First Nations and Pasifika bring forward their deep motivation in representing their people to almost overcome a Lions team with vastly superior skill and fitness levels. That is Woodward's point. The Wallabies acted like the cuddly marsupial on their emblem and did not unleash their inner dog to fight the Lions with every atom of their being for the full 80 minutes. By the time the Australians started to play, the game was already lost. To use an old-fashioned word, the Wallabies must use aggression to 'bustle' the Lions. That means to throw the Lions off kilter, to upset the tempo and rhythm of their game plan. Australia's Nick Frost and Tadhg Beirne of the Lions compete for a lineout. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho The Wallabies must summon up the same ultra-aggressive spirit as the First Nations and Pasifika while also fixing their wobbly lineout. If they can, they have a chance. With Will Skelton, Rob Valetini and Dave Porecki – the best lineout thrower in the squad – are all starting, making it a far better Wallaby selection than last week. In selecting a 6-2 bench, head coach Joe Schmidt is telling us the Wallabies smell blood in the water and are going to attack the Lions scrum. That is something I did not predict at the beginning of the tour. As we say in Australia, this is Sydney or the bush. This second test is all or nothing for the Wallabies. With a giant injection of 80 minutes worth of old-fashioned aggression, the Australians are capable of an upset. However, if they do not secure their own lineout possession, trouble awaits.


Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
'We are not playing a pub team' - Lions captain Maro Itoje dismisses Australia frailty talk
Lions captain Maro Itoje has dismissed notions of Australian rugby frailty and a Test series whitewash ahead of Saturday's second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground by claiming 'we're not playing a pub team'. The British & Irish Lions have a chance to wrap up the series in front of an estimated 90,000-plus crowd at the iconic home of Australian cricket and Aussie Rules football having blown the Wallabies away in the opening half of the first Test in Brisbane last Saturday on the way to a 27-19 victory. A repeat at the MCG would deliver a first series win for the famous touring team since 2013 and seventh in nine tours Down Under stretching back to the original 'British Isles' visit to Australia in 1889. That history resonates for tour skipper Itoje, who has quite the Lions backstory himself having first pulled on the red jersey in 2017 in New Zealand, quickly becoming a fan favourite in his battles against the All Blacks. This Saturday's match will be the England captain's seventh consecutive Lions Test appearance having started five and come off the bench in the final, deadlocked encounter of the drawn 2017 series. He does not entertain the idea that Lions players need help focusing on the task ahead. 'When you wear this jersey and represent the Lions you know it comes with huge honour and a sense of responsibility and we know we are not playing a pub team,' Itoje said. 'The Wallabies are a proper team, I played them last year in the autumn and we lost to them when we were supposed to win. They are a team that can punish you if you don't approach the game properly.' The Saracens second row acknowledged that a Lions Test brings something different from within into play compared to other big days for club and country. 'I guess these are the sorts of games, these are almost the reason why you want to play rugby. You want to play rugby and be a part of these huge occasions, huge games with maybe a little bit of jeopardy on the line, but more so the opportunity to do something special, the opportunity to be a part of something special, the opportunity to do something that lives long in the long in the memory, and create special memories with your friends and colleagues and family. 'So I try and focus on the opportunity. Then I also just try and focus on the process of what I need to do to get myself in the right space. 'Naturally, given the magnitude of the game and the weeks, there's a higher level of focus. As a professional athlete, there's always focus to what you do, but there's… not all games are equal. 'Not all games mean the same thing. And this game, last week, these games aren't equal to normal games of rugby. They're special. So naturally, there's a higher level of focus. It requires a higher level of intensity and a higher level of diligence to what you want to do.'


RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
Australia v British and Irish Lions second Test: All you need to know
Australia host the Lions in the second Test on Saturday with the series on the line. It's simply win or bust for the Wallabies after last weekend's underwhelming 27-19 defeat in Brisbane. The famed MCG is the scene and a crowd of around 90,000 is expected. A win for Andy Farrell's men will clinch a first Lions series win since 2013. Find out all you need to know here. ONLINE There will be a live blog on and the RTÉ News app, as well as match report, reaction and player ratings. TV Australia v British and Irish Lions will be shown on Sky Sports with kick-off at 11am Irish time. WEATHER There was a severe weather warning for Melbourne on Friday afternoon to evening, and rain is predicted for Saturday 8pm (local) kick-off. Temperature around 11C. Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. While last weekend's scoreline looked close on paper, the Lions held the Wallabies at arm's length throughout the game, and it was only when the contest was over that the Aussies did some damage. Neither side will read too much into that but Andy Farrell will demand an 80-minute performance this time around. There's more heft in the Aussie pack with the addition of Rob Valetini, Will Skelton and David Porecki and the hope for Joe Schmidt is that they provide more front-foot ball for the backs to work off. They were distinctly second-best last week across all areas, on and off the ball, and achieving something like parity up front will be crucial to their cause. It's set for a wet evening in Melbourne so expect a lot of kicking and aerial battles. The Lions have made three changes to the team with Bundee Aki coming in for Sione Tuipulotu, Andrew Porter replacing Ellis Genge and Ollie Chessum in for the injured Joe McCarthy. Garry Ringrose was originally selected but withdrew after self-reporting concussion symptoms. Still, there are a record nine Ireland internationals in the starting team, with Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong, Tadhg Beirne, Jack Conan, Jamison Gibson-Park, James Lowe and Hugo Keenan all retaining their places. Maro Itoje captains from the second row and Finn Russell will run the operation from out-half. Rónan Kelleher and James Ryan are on the bench, alongside Owen Farrell and Blair Kinghorn who didn't make the squad last weekend. For the home side, in come forwards Valetini, Skelton and Porecki with Schmidt also making three changes. This is the 25th meeting of the teams, with the Lions winning 18 and losing six. The tourists, ten-point favourites for this game, have won seven series and lost two. British and Irish Lions: Hugo Keenan; Tommy Freeman, Huw Jones, Bundee Aki, James Lowe; Finn Russell, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong; Maro Itoje, Ollie Chessum; Tadhg Beirne, Tom Curry, Jack Conan. Replacements: Rónan Kelleher, Ellis Genge, Will Stuart, James Ryan, Jac Morgan, Alex Mitchell, Owen Farrell, Blair Kinghorn. Australia: Tom Wright; Max Jorgensen, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Len Ikitau, Harry Potter; Tom Lynagh, Jake Gordon; James Slipper, David Porecki, Allan Alaalatoa; Nick Frost, Will Skelton; Rob Valetini, Fraser McReight, Harry Wilson. Replacements: Billy Pollard, Angus Bell, Tom Robertson, Jeremy Williams, Langi Gleeson, Carlo Tizzano, Tate McDermott, Ben Donaldson. OFFICIALS Assistant Referee 1: Nika Amashukeli (Geo) Assistant Referee 2: Ben O'Keeffe (NZ) TMO: Eric Gauzins (Fra) WHAT THEY SAID Joe Schmidt (Australia head coach): "We don't have the intention this week of being submissive. It'd be special for this group [to win]. I think it would accelerate a little bit of their growth as well, because in terms of gaining confidence, it's hard to top competing with the best." Andy Farrell (Lions head coach): "We certainly feel we left a few things out there [last weekend], most aspects of our game will need to better but it is proving to ourselves it can be better as well. Doing things properly, that is what we have talked about all week."