'It was one of the best weeks of my short Munster career'
FLYER: Munster A's Jonathan Wren is tackled by Aaron Sexton of Ulster A. Picture: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane
JONATHAN Wren recalls being called into Ian Costello’s office. It was appropriate the Academy manager was telling one of its hopefuls that he’d be making a Munster debut in the Champions Cup against Wasps.
These were unusual circumstances. It was December 2021. 34 Munster players and 14 members of staff, including head coach Johann van Graan, were stuck in South Africa on a Covid-19 hit trip. Eight academy players and two pathway players were called in the squad for the clash with Wasps.
The game was coming at a sweet spot for Wren. He was nearly two years into the physical troubles that would eventually end his career but had just finished rehabbing a hamstring injury. Six months later, his career would be over at 23 but right then, he was fit. He stepped off the bench to make his senior bow in a famous Munster win.
“It helped a lot of the younger lads that were left at home,” says Wren. “When we got the news that they were stuck in South Africa, a lot of lads came up from clubs and started training for the week. There was an older Irish crew left in Munster as well. It was one of the best weeks of my short Munster career. I was lucky enough to get on for a few minutes.”
The quick and elegant full back’s rugby career had started in Crosshaven. It moved up a gear when he enrolled at Presentation Brothers College, a last-minute decision, but the right one. He played senior rugby for three years, winning the Munster Schools Senior Cup in 2017 with victory over Glenstal Abbey.
“I went straight into the Munster academy after school,” says Wren. “I moved to Limerick. I was lucky that Munster push you to go to college. In my case, it was obviously important that I got through all of that. I liked the worth ethic side of it, getting in early every day and putting in the hard work. I was used to it from school because you used to have gym before school and training after.
"Living in Crosshaven and driving up to the city every day, you're up at the crack of dawn and you're not home until late. I was ready for it.”
Wren had suffered just one hamstring injury while in school and none during the heavy load of his Ireland U20 season. He was part of the side that won Ireland’s first-ever Six Nations Grand Slam at that level.
“It was really at the start of Covid when I first tore it badly and the string of reoccurring injuries started,” he says. “I had three years of constant recurring hamstring injuries between the two legs. I did it 11 times in the three-and-a-half years. One would happen, I'd rehab it, get back and within three to six weeks or one or two games, it would go again.
“It was tough going, especially the day of and the day after the injuries as they happened. It was difficult to deal with coming towards the end because you're on a knife edge and you don't know what's going to happen contract-wise. You're thinking that you're probably not going to be kept on because you've had so many injuries. Then the threat of retirement got bigger and bigger the more injuries I had.
“They have a psychologist there, Cathal Sheridan, who would have sat down with me. I'm probably one of the people who doesn't like to talk about things. I just drive on, get on with it. I'd have had teachers and coaches from school reaching out, people that I could lean on.
“I'm lucky enough. I never really struggled badly with it. I was always able to pick myself up within a week or two and just get back into the rehab.”
After the ninth and tenth tears, Wren started to wonder how many more times it could happen before he’d have to call it quits.
“The final hamstring tear in training... I remember walking back in and going 'Jesus, this is probably the final straw',” he says. “At the end of it, I sat down with the doctors, a couple of physios and they were just like, 'It's time to call it really'.
"It was a tough conversation but it was coming for so long that to some degree, it made it a little bit easier. It wasn't one injury, like someone who had to retire through one concussion and it's a total shock. It was coming over a long period of time. There's three grades to them. Grade three would be totally torn off the bone. A lot of mine were grade ones and twos.
"Once you do a lot of damage to tendons, it leaves a lot of scar tissue and it's more difficult to heal. That's what finished me but I never had a real bad injury off the bone. The more injuries I got, the longer that the rehab was getting; it was three, four months all the time.”
In June 2022, Munster announced that Wren was retiring from rugby. He took three weeks off for a holiday and then threw himself into what was next. He now works in sales and project management with his father’s company Wrentech, which is based in Carrigaline.
“To be honest, I never really understood what my dad did because I was never too interested in it. I just wanted to play," he says. "In the last three or four injuries, I was lucky to have him there. He was saying, 'Look, if something happens and you can't play anymore, you've got the option to fall back on this'.
“I was thrown into the deep end at the start. We'd do a lot of travelling. We represent a couple of companies from the US and from Germany and Switzerland. A lot of the work we do is with pharmaceutical companies and the food industry.”
Twenty one months on from his rugby dream ending, Wren is doing well, happy in "the real world, the working world".
"My parents probably found the whole injury side tougher than me," he says. "Obviously, they don't like seeing their kids get hurt. That was heavy on them. They were always supporting me through it.
"They were delighted that I eventually got a run out with Munster. It's nice to have that. That will be with me forever more."
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