A year on from his Test debut with Ireland and Thomas Clarkson still feels the jangle of nerves. Putting on the green shirt, walking into the stadium, hasn’t improved for the Irish prop.
“Not that much more comfortable to be honest,” says Clarkson, who turned down an offer from Italy, for whom he qualifies through his Italian mother.
Despite 12 months passing since he came off the bench for Finlay Bealham in Ireland’s win over Argentina in last year’s November internationals, he admits: “It is still nerve-racking playing. I’d like to think that I have progressed a decent bit, but it’s still pretty nerve-racking running out.”
Clarkson scored a try for Ireland against Portugal in July, next thing he was flying to join the Lions in Australia.
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“It hasn’t really sunk in to be honest,” he says. “I’m still pinching myself a little bit. But it was unbelievable to get the chance to train and play with all those lads.”
At 25, the former Blackrock College player is nine years Bealham’s junior. He is also one of the few players in the Ireland squad who wasn’t around during Joe Schmidt’s tenure.
His focus over the last year has been on how to improve in order to muscle his way in on Bealham and Tadhg Furlong. But that pursuit has led him towards simplicity, he says.
“I probably tried to simplify the game down a little bit in my head. I probably would have got overwhelmed trying to do everything perfectly and ended up doing nothing particularly well.
“I just thought towards the end of the season if I’d pick three things that I was going to nail, it was gonna be ball carry, tackle and scrum. Then everything else that came off the back of that – whatever happened, happened.”
There might be a start for Clarkson this weekend against Schmidt’s Wallabies, so it would seem sensible to keep doing what he’s been doing.
“I just came off the summer and I just wanted to be involved in a few games now in November, and then build on from there,” he says.
“I just wanted to make sure that if I got opportunities, I took them.”
It’s worked so far.
