'We'll be out in force' - Munster alter plans to pay respects to Tom Tierney

Tierney is to be laid to rest on Thursday.

RIP: Tom Tierney during his Munster playing days. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Munster Rugby will suspend preparations for Friday’s BKT URC home clash with Scarlets in order to pay their respects en masse to former player Tom Tierney, who died suddenly last Friday at the age of 46.

A scrum-half with Richmond, Garryowen, Munster, Leicester Tigers, Galwegians and Connacht, Tierney earned eight caps for Ireland including at the 1999 World Cup and went onto coach the Ireland women’s team after stints with Crescent College Comprehensive, Garryowen, and Cork Constitution.

An IRFU employee since 2014, with whom he coached Ireland U19 and U20 Men’s, Ireland Women’s 7s and the Ireland Women’s 15s for three years, he had been an National Talent Coach based at Munster’s High Performance Centre in Limerick since 2021, working with the province’s Academy and National Talent Squad players.

Defence coach Denis Leamy paid tribute to his former team-mate on Tuesday and said: "We'll all be there on Thursday, absolutely. We're running a slightly different week this week in that we frontloaded our week Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

"Tom is being buried on Thursday and we'll be there, we'll be out in force. It's incredibly important for us to be there and he's part of our history, he added so much to the Munster jersey as a player and in this building as a coach.

"We'll be out in force.” 

Describing how he heard of Tierney’s passing last weekend, Leamy said: “Incredibly sad news filtered into the building on Friday morning and it was with great shock that we learned of the death of Tom.

"I played with him here for a couple of years and then he went on to Leicester and to Connacht, and I played against him quite regularly over those years.

"Always a character on and off the pitch and the building is a much lesser place without him. He had the ability to light up a room when he came in and, look, first and foremost our condolences to (wife) Mary, (and daughters) Isobel and Julia, we really are thinking of them at this very sad time and our thoughts and prayers are with them.

"Yeah look, he forged an incredible relationship with the young players he was dealing with, he was hugely passionate about them, he was hugely passionate about Munster rugby and I suppose the values he was instilling in those young men we were starting to see on the training pitch and in the building, and it's a great pity, it really is, it's unbelievable really.”