He must be a coach’s dream. He is versatile, usually plays 80 minutes, and invariably rises to the occasion. In recognition of all of this and more, Tadhg Beirne has been named the Guinness Rugby Writers of Ireland men’s player of the year for 2024/25.
Beirne’s remarkable output saw him play 33 games for Munster, Ireland and the British & Irish Lions, accumulating a whopping 2,544 minutes playing time in total.
“It’s a lovely, lovely accolade to get for sure, and I appreciate those who voted for me. It’s obviously a big honour, a lot of big names have won it in the past,” said Beirne, who succeeds Caelan Doris as a recipient, also following after Bundee Aki, Josh van der Flier and Garry Ringrose.
Ireland’s unconvincing Japan job
“It was a season full of ups and downs, like any season,” said Beirne, who was made Munster captain before the early-season departure of head coach Graham Rowntree.
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“At club level it was a season that was kind of a little bit all over the place, between the massive honour of being named the captain and then everything that went on in Munster with the coaches and then we weren’t playing the best.
“But we finished the season reasonably well and gave ourselves an opportunity and came up short with the Sharks,” he said, referencing the province’s URC quarter-final loss when a goal-kicking contest was needed to separate the sides after extra-time.
“You look at the positives rather than the negatives there. And then with Ireland, we didn’t have the Six Nations we would have hoped for, so there were disappointments, but finishing the season off with the Lions on such a high was incredible.
“I think that’s obviously going to be the one that sticks out as such a highlight, and it will stick out as a career high for me in many years to come,” he added.
A second-time tourist, Beirne was named Player of the Series following the Lions’ victorious tour of Australia.
“I think the main thing is that we won the series. You give up any personal awards to ensure that your team is winning, but they’re icing on the cake, being awarded that nice accolade at the end of that Lions series. It was, from a personal point of view, a huge honour to win that and something I’ll probably look back on in a few years and be very proud of.”
Andy Farrell’s faith in Beirne was rewarded in the Tests against the Wallabies, but he acknowledged it came after a concerted effort to up his performances from his earlier outings during the tour.
“I was under a bit of pressure in terms of selection and my performances needed to improve. So, I kind of concentrated on different things in the game and it worked to my benefit, and I’ve continued doing that since, preparing for games just a little bit differently. It’s helped a lot.”
Beirne hit the ground running with an outstanding return for Munster in their win over Leinster at Croke Park before he suffered a set back in Ireland’s loss to the All Blacks in Chicago where his early yellow card was upgraded to red on review, only to be subsequently rescinded by a disciplinary panel following the game.
Having got back to winning ways with a 41-10 victory over Japan at the Aviva last Saturday, Beirne said: “It’s always brilliant to get to play at home. The whole November series is generally quite special because you’re at home for them.”
