Bowe driven by 2007 omission

TOMMY BOWE packed a lot into his summer. It kicked off with a three-week trek down America’s West Coast, a 15-hour promotional blitz across Ireland and countless rounds of golf and games of table tennis in Carton House.

What it didn’t involve was much rugby. Training, yes. Endless fitness sessions and gym work, yes. Rugby, no. A foot injury saw to that, restricting the wing to a pair of appearances against England and the USA.

His rustiness was apparent last Sunday when he spilled the ball three times in as many seconds at one point but he balanced that embarrassment with a try in each half and his importance is unquestioned.

Four years ago, a fully fit Bowe was omitted from the squad Eddie O’Sullivan took to France. This time, he missed the lion’s share of the prep work and still made the squad with something to spare ahead Luke Fitzgerald.

Declan Kidney bore testimony to that progress last month on the day when he announced his final squad and backed the likes of Fitzgerald and Tomás O’Leary to “do a Tommy Bowe” and “burn off everyone” in the years to come.

What a difference a World Cup can make.

Devastated at the time, that experience in 2007 proved to be the making of Bowe. Player-of-the-year awards in Ireland and Wales followed, as did starring roles for Ireland in a Grand Slam season and the Lions tour to South Africa.

“Missing out on the last one was a big blow for me,” he said.

“Not that I thought I was going to be a shoe-in at the time but just that I was gutted not to make it. It was the first time that I hadn’t made a 30-man squad in a couple of years and a World Cup is where international players make it.

“I grew up watching World Cups and not making the last one is a massive spur-on for me this time. I don’t just want to be in the squad, I want to be in the starting team and part of a successful team too. I have plenty of goals. There is definitely a hunger there.”

Bowe travelled to New Zealand as a merchandising icon. Those boyish good looks, the toned body, the winning smile and his easy demeanour have seen to that.

Many brands have sought his signature. Among those to secure it are Guinness, Eden Park clothing, Kinetica Sports Supplements, Lloyd and Price shoes and Puma. Irish charity Bóthar and Bórd Bia have also availed of his time recognition factor. That celebrity status has been franked by appearances on RTÉ’s ‘Late Late Show’ and ‘The Restaurant’, an attachment to former Miss Wales Lucy Whitehouse and the honour of finishing top of one poll to find Ireland’s sexiest bum.

It is all the more astonishing given he lives and works in Wales. The potential loss of marketing value has always been viewed as a reason for billboard Irish players to reject moves abroad yet Bowe’s stint at the Ospreys hasn’t affected it.

He has some commercial irons in the fire across the Irish Sea but his scope is limited by a ready supply of Welsh players.

“For me, being in Dublin is more mad than being in Wales. It might be different for a Welsh international but I wouldn’t have any problem walking through Cardiff, say. One or two Ospreys fans might recognise you but that’s it.”

Not that he minds getting stopped on the street. Bowe recognises his good fortune and doesn’t need to look far to be reminded how lucky he is. His sister Hannah works in London and gets the Red Eye back to Dublin regularly to train with the international hockey squad.

It’s a 90-minute trip to the airport, the flight over, a taxi and quick kip on a cousin’s couch, all followed by a day’s training and the return shuttle back.

“To see her, it is such a huge commitment. Personally, I thought she was mad doing it but Hannah is one of these people who gets a bee in her bonnet about things and there is no stopping her.

“Then she asks me ‘are you around?’ and I am trying to find the time to meet her for a coffee, which is a sad thing to say. It makes me appreciate what I have got.”

Recent calls between Queenstown and London could have contained few complaints. Ireland made full use of a town known as the adventure capital of New Zealand and that sense of fun and liberty won’t be abandoned now the real business has begun. Bowe has experienced something similar to the carnival atmosphere of a World Cup with the Lions two summers ago. He isn’t the type to pull up the drawbridge and camp out in the team hotel. He will hit the streets and should be able to go about his business with the minimum of fuss.

But keep scoring tries and Bowe’s value may turn global.