'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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