Tom Farrell relieved to make Ireland bow and get monkey off his back

Ireland's Tom Farrell celebrates after the match. Pic: Billy Stickland/Inpho

Munster’s Tom Farrell has revealed the relief he felt having finally earned his Test debut with Ireland, against Japan, at the age of 32.

It wasn’t the best of performances by Ireland as a collective, but this was still everything that Farrell had wanted and it came six years after he was first called into the Ireland squad by former head coach Joe Schmidt.

“Yeah, it was. Massive, massive amount of pride to be honest. Particularly during the anthems, I was trying to catch eyes with some of my family.

“But yeah, it was probably, what's the word, relief as well, just to finally get the monkey off the back and to be able to say I play for my country now.” He’d slept just fine on the Friday night. Eight solid hours.

The early 14.40pm kick-off probably helped too in that it didn’t leave him with endless hours to kill and to ponder. Breakfast was no sooner eaten than they were down the road to the Aviva Stadium.

The early part of the morning was quite similar to be honest. Obviously the early kick-off was a bit unusual. It was literally: breakfast, gone. For Farrell, it was a reminder of his underage days when games would routinely fall before lunchtime.

And the anthems were handled just fine.

Farrell said he felt a massive amount of pride making his Irish debut. Pic: Billy Stickland/Inpho

“I actually didn't get too emotional to be honest. I probably got the emotion out of the way during the earlier part of the week when I knew I was selected. And then after that it was just more just to enjoy the moment really. And take it in and yeah, enjoy it.” The real emotion was felt earlier in the week, when he found out he would be playing and he got to share the news with his wife and the rest of his family, some of whom were at the team hotel when the traditional jersey presentation for newbies is held.

His daughter among them.

Farrell was on the brink of penning a move abroad two summers ago having been let go by Connacht only for a late approach from Munster to keep him in Ireland and, since when, he has played some superb rugby for his new province.

“It was probably a lifeline for my career. I was very close to going abroad and then this opportunity arose and then a couple of injuries and a few different situations happened at Munster where I got on a bit of a roll of games.

“I managed to pick up a good bit of form and my game went from strength to strength last year. Luckily, this year again, I managed to get in for rounds two and three of the league, just before the Ireland squad was selected, and that probably worked in my favour as well.”