'He was just a great character' - Cullen pays tribute to former teammate Tierney

The Leinster head coach recalled 'magical times' with his former teammate.

Tom Tierney during his time as Ireland U19 head coach. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Fond memories, like flowers in a late frost, can pop up at the most difficult of times. So it was that Leo Cullen’s mind retreated all the way back to Richmond rugby club in the spring of 1998 as he digested the sudden passing of Tom Tierney.

They were apprentice men at the time, kids just emerging from their teens and turning into adulthood and adult rugby via the bridge that was the old U21 grade. And their growth was evident through their experiences in the green jersey 25 years ago.

Brian McLaughlin’s side had started that season by shipping a 60-point loss to an Irish Colleges team. They finished it with a Triple Crown, sealed with a heart-on-sleeve 9-7 win in one of London’s more affluent and picturesque boroughs.

That was a standout Irish team. Tierney and Cullen aside, it had Ronan O’Gara at ten, Shane Horgan in midfield and David Wallace, Aidan McCullen, Mick O’Driscoll and Frankie Sheahan in the pack. Marcus Horan had played earlier that year too.

This was a side that had France on the ropes with ten minutes to go in La Roche sur Yon when, having led by 21-10, they lost by eight. Close to a Grand Slam, then, and yet it’s the relationships that people always alight on as they look back.

“I was the eight, he was the nine,” said Cullen of Tierney. “He was just a great character. If you think back, we had a great group at that stage, really enjoyable to be around the provincial mix at underage teams, just the slagging and fun that we used to have.” 

Cullen and Tierney crossed paths over and back as the years went on. They played on the same senior and Ireland ‘A’ squads and the latter hadn’t long finished with Leicester Tigers by the time the current Leinster boss arrived for his own two-year stint in the East Midlands.

Tierney made his Ireland debut the same day as Brian O’Driscoll: a 46-10 loss to Australia in Ballymore in 1999. There were eight caps in all, four of them at the 1999 World Cup, and the last was earned two seasons before Cullen made the same grade.

He was big for a scrum-half at the time. In and around six foot. So was Ciaran Scally, who had been forced to retire just months before Tierney’s final Test appearance, against England at Twickenham in 2000.

Peter Stringer made his debut a fortnight later.

“In terms of big, physical nines, Tom was great,” said Cullen. “Very, very strong, and very influential in that 21s team. Tom was a great character, great outlook, always so entertaining. Those underage teams are magical times really.” 

Tierney, whose funeral takes place tomorrow, would have stints with Garryowen, Galwegians, Munster and Connacht on his CV by the time he moved into a coaching career that knew its own numerous and varied chapters.

He took charge of Crescent College Comprehensive, Garryowen, Cork Constitution and the Ireland Club team. And there were spells over the Ireland U19s and U20s and the women’s sevens and 15s operations after joining the IRFU.

Coaching is a deeply immersive experience, one that tends to reward and promote tunnel vision, but Cullen and Tierney got to touch base a bit more often when the latter’s recent work as a national talent coach involved the odd visit to Leinster.

“It’s just devastating news really,” said Cullen. “I just hope everyone rallied around his family, but yeah, it’s hard for your mind not to turn back to Axel then as well. Guys at that age, jeepers like, 42 and 46.

“I’m 45, Tom is a year older than I am, Axel is four years older than me. Guys that are involved in coaching as well. It’s just tragic, absolutely tragic. Hard to know what to say about it, isn’t it?”