Court primed for ‘ultimate honour’
Principally, they come from farming stock even if their properties in Bright View, Queensland, Australia, and Cappamore, Limerick, are many thousands of miles apart. They are also professional rugby players plying their trade in the front-row of the scrum and also happen to be two of the most imposing physical specimens imaginable.
Court weighs in at 19st 2 lbs and stands 6 ft 3 inches tall. Hayes is seven pounds heavier and an inch taller. Not much in it really but there certainly is a vast gulf where one other key statistic is concerned. Whereas Hayes trots out tomorrow for his 90th Irish cap, Court will be winning his first should he be called off the bench at any stage of the proceedings.
In that event, Court, 28, would become the second native of Australia to pull on an Ireland jersey. Brian Smith (now a member of the English coaching team) won nine caps between 1989 and ‘91 having played against Ireland for his native country in 1987.
Court, like Hayes, was a late developer but having caught the eye in recent times with Ulster, he is within touching distance of an achievement he believed was way beyond his reach. After all, he was playing AIL Division Two rugby with Malone only twelve months ago.
“It would be the ultimate honour to play for Ireland,” he says. “This is the top-most echelon in rugby. I’ve played a lot of sports at different levels but to be able to say you’ve made it at this level would be a dream come true. Fingers crossed there might be a bit of time for me. Hopefully John and Marcus can do the job and they may not need me but just to be named in a squad with those other front-rowers who have won Magners Leagues, Heineken Cups, Triple Crowns, who knows how many hundreds of caps between them, it’s an honour.”
How Big Tom got to this stage in his rugby career is something of a saga in itself. He first dabbled in Athletics at the age of four. While in High School, the emphasis was on Rugby League and Rowing. After that it was back to Athletics and more specifically the Shot Putt at which he competed in Australian Olympic trials.
But it was Rugby Union all the way in 2006 when he was recognised, initially by his native Queensland and then Manawatu in New Zealand’s NPC. He arrived home just after the Reds had completed their squad for the ‘06 season but that wasn’t to be end of the story.
“I got a call the morning after the England-Australia game when Australia got destroyed in the scrum,” he explains. “Alec Evans was the scrum coach for the Reds and he gave me a call and asked me to come down and train with the full squad. I had a good pre-season, played the first three Super 14 games and then it came down to money. If I played four or more games, they’d have had to give me a full contract. They had a full squad and they didn’t want to have to sign up another player so I looked for other options.
“Allen Clarke at Ulster was quite keen to get me over and have a look. He said there were a lot of opportunities over here with props if you could develop well. I guess Allen saw a bit of a diamond in the rough. It was a huge help that I was Irish qualified. My agent had let a lot of clubs know that because my grandfather (Patrick Carey) was from Limerick that there was a passport opportunity and because I hadn’t played at a high level in Australia.”
Court is now in his third season with Ulster. It’s a help that he can pack down on either side of the front-row although nowadays he is specialising as a loose head.
“I’ve tried to be a lot more professional and do the little things well,” he says. “Up to this point, it’s been getting down to the basics but I guess at the end of last season I started to feel that they were coming along. It was after a few camps down here with some of the Irish guys that you sort of see what the base mark is and what you have to come up against.
“You realise there is still a long way to go and there are a lot of things you can do to improve. The chance to learn to play loose head was a big bonus. It’s helped me a lot to get more game-time with Ulster. It’s been about focusing in and tweaking the little things.
“I had been questioning whether coming over to Ireland was the right move. Even last season, I played with Malone in the second division in the AIL, so it was still a work in progress. I tried to use last year as a way to get the basics done. With the arrival of Matty Williams, I could start to see light at the end of the tunnel. He had confidence in me.
“When he came along last year, I was at a point where I hadn’t played a lot for Ulster that season or the previous one. It was touch and go whether I was even going to get a contract. Matty came along and I asked if he’d give me an opportunity in some of the A games.
“They went well, he thought he saw something he could work with and then he gave me a run in some Magners League games. They turned out very well for me, but there was a while there when I wasn’t sure where I would be going this season.”
And John Hayes? “He probably drives a lot of tractors whereas we work by hand over there! We grew up on about 100 acres and it was good.”
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