LONG READ Tom Farrell: Ireland's 'incredible' latecomer making up for lost time

“What was said at half-time?” Tom Farrell was asked after Munster came back from 12-5 down to beat Edinburgh in one of those forgettable, early-season games that can ultimately prove so crucial.

“Basically, in layman’s terms, to get the finger out,” Farrell replied. Draped in another player of the match medal, he added, “A bit of a kick up the backside, really, to be honest.”

Farrell has had enough kicks up the backside to know what one feels like. Missing out on another Ireland squad last week, after such an impressive 2024/25 campaign with Munster – he was their player of the year – was just another boot in the rump. Farrell responded with a scintillating performance, and try, in Munster’s 31-14 win over Leinster. Simply put, he went about his business.

With 23 minutes gone at Croke Park, Tadhg Beirne leapt higher than James Ryan to claim lineout ball and find Ethan Coughlan. The scrum-half passed to Jack Crowley, who beat the Leinster press with a perfectly judged kick. James Lowe and Jimmy O’Brien were drawn in, but Farrell extended his right paw and flicked the ball up for himself to snatch and pelt over the tryline. “Beirne and Farrell,” notes former Leinster and Wales coach Mike Ruddock. “Two good Lansdowne boys there!”

With Bundee Aki (hip) and Robbie Henshaw (groin) carrying knocks, the 32-year-old was belatedly added to the national squad and could make a long-awaited Ireland debut in November. Were that to transpire, Farrell would be the oldest Ireland back to win his first cap in the professional era.

Farrell’s first significant blip on the Irish rugby radar came in 2010 when he lined out for Castleknock College in a Leinster Senior Schools Cup quarter-final against St Michael’s College. He faced future Ireland stars Luke McGrath and Dan Leavy that day as Michael’s won out on their way to the final. He played his club rugby with Coolmine, but it was through the school All-Ireland League side Lansdowne reached out.

Colin Goode, former chairman of Lansdowne, recalls taking a trip out to Castleknock to make the pitch. “There was plenty of chat about Tom and he was getting offers from Ospreys at the time to join them straight out of school,” Goode says. “However, the lure of senior rugby with a very successful Lansdowne FC, at the time, and the pulling power of Mike Ruddock as our senior head coach, and Ireland’s Under-20s coach, he decided to join.”

Ruddock, who led Wales to Grand Slam glory in 2005, had been asked by Castleknock to lend his coaching expertise to a few sessions. “A few of their senior cup players stood out,” he says, “and one of them was Tom Farrell. He was scoring tries for fun, had good footwork, that ability to beat his player, one-on-one, a good fend, strong and this real x-factor.”

Mike worked with him one-on-one, going through video after video, and practising on the pitch. Tom became the best tackler on the team by the end of the season.

“One incident sticks with me,” Goode recalls. “On a visit to play Cork Con, Tom had a terrible day with the seniors. He missed numerous tackles and was dropped for the next few matches. He came to Mike and asked how he could improve. Mike worked with him one-on-one, going through video after video, and practising on the pitch. Tom became the best tackler on the team by the end of the season. He always had the offensive skills but knew he had to do the tough defensive work as well, and he did.”

That grit, determination and willingness to work hard to improve, Goode feels, has led Farrell to where he now is. Farrell was then drafted into the Leinster academy, where he would train with Lansdowne clubmates Tom Daly and Peter Dooley. He missed the 2013 Six Nations with Ireland U20s due to an injury, but made it back in time for the U20 World Championship. Also included in that squad were Leavy, McGrath, Josh van der Flier and current Munster teammate, Jack O’Donoghue.

Back with his club, Farrell would play a part in an unprecedented period of success. “Tom and our fellow recruits helped start of a great run of successful years in Lansdowne FC,” Goode recalls. “We won the senior AIL and Under 20s AIL titles in their first year with other notables, including Marty Moore, Jordi Murphy, John Cooney and Tadhg Beirne, as his teammates. Tom was destined for great things but injury held him back and, after not receiving a contract offer from Leinster, he left for Bedford Blues and took the long less fancied road.”

There was a short stint, as injury cover, at London Irish in 2015/16 before, that summer, he moved to Bedford. He played 11 times for the English Championship side before the Pro12 champions came calling. In January 2017, Pat Lam brought Farrell to Galway. It started as a short-term deal but ended up as seven-and-a-half years with Connacht.

Matt Healy played five seasons with Farrell in Galway, and previously shared the pitch with him in Lansdowne colours. “He’s a great lad, inside and outside the changing room,” the former Ireland wing says. “He’s not in there talking bollocks – whenever he does talk, people tend to listen as he knows what he’s doing. The thing I like about him is he’s just been doing the work. Doing the work consistently for years and years… he turns up to training and does the work. He goes home, he does the work. Over time, it has paid dividends.

“I don’t know how this is going to sound, but he doesn’t necessarily look the most physical or biggest, and doesn’t look like he has agility in the feet, or is the player with the flashiest hands, but the fella is so physical, he’s so strong, and he’s unbelievably agile. He can just navigate his way around tight contact areas, slip in and out of these situations of tight traffic, and he has the back door passes and an ability to get the ball away in tricky situations.

“He would probably be the centre I enjoyed playing with the most because, defensively, he’s so good. As a winger, he gave me so much confidence. His communication is so good and there was such mutual trust, even when it was on the fly. His ‘hand of God’ try against Leinster was so good, but I was looking at some of his defensive work that night and it was outstanding.”

There were a couple of call-ups to Ireland camps back in 2018 and 2019, when Joe Schmidt was head coach, but he was not able to circumvent the logjam that is Aki-Henshaw-McCloskey-Ringrose. “I was probably a bit raw at that stage,” Farrell told The42 in 2024, “and didn’t understand the intensity needed for Test level.”

“The writing was on the wall by March. I had an inkling I wasn’t going to be kept on.

After seven seasons out West, where he was well regarded by teammates and fans, Connacht did not renew his contract. “The writing was on the wall by March,” Farrell recalled. “I had an inkling I wasn’t going to be kept on.”

He was close to going abroad, again, but Munster came calling. Senior coach Mike Prendergast has worked well with big outside centres in the past – notably former Ireland international Chris Farrell, no relation of Tom – and perked up when he learned of Connacht’s big call.

“I always fancied Tom as a player,” says Prendergast. “I suppose it’s his skillset and it’s the unknown about him as well. I always speak about a player that carries the ball in two hands. It sounds very simple, and sometimes it is that simplicity – you actually don’t know what he’s going to do, whether he’s going to pass or carry, and he manages to get his nose through, makes a lot of line breaks.

“I always refer to players like, in the same position, Brian O’Driscoll and Barry Murphy, who played with us previously. They were two centres who ran with the ball in two hands and played and teased defences. Tom has the ability to do that. Even when he was with Connacht, he had great seasons there. Fortunately for us, we picked him up.

“Did I feel he would be as dominant with us?” Maybe, I didn’t expect him to get to that level, but he showed unbelievable form over the last two seasons, and he justifies his call-up… the thing with Tom is, he does it on the big days as well. He does it against the big teams.”

Prendergast notes, when he and Clayton McMillan were going back over last season’s encounters with Leinster, how many telling moments Farrell had in the clips. “He’s a different type of player, but he’s an incredibly effective player and we’re just really delighted to have him here.”

O’Donoghue started with Farrell in Saturday’s Croke Park win. Having earned the last of his two Ireland caps back in 2017, the Munster back-row is well aware of how hard it can be to break into the Test reckoning.

“Tom has been incredible for us,” says O’Donoghue. “This call-up is nothing short of what he deserves. He’s a big-game player. He showed, at the weekend and in all his stats from last season, he’s able to play on the international stage. I hope he gets that opportunity to put on that green jersey.”

Everywhere you look for insights into Farrell – the player, the teammate, the man – you are met glowing praise. “It would be my pleasure to talk about that man,” Healy replied to the request for an interview. “A true gent.”

‘Deserve’ was the word consistently mentioned.

Tom is showing if you have resilience and perseverance, and keep putting the effort in, your skillset will be recognised.

“Hopefully he gets capped this autumn,” says Ruddock. “It would be a great story and his journey would inspire so many other players to keep believing they can make it if they get overlooked initially.

“Some guys can get disillusioned if they are not picked early in their career, or have some form of rejection. But you have guys like Tadhg Beirne, who also missed out with Leinster, and Tom Farrell. They’re showing if you have resilience and perseverance, and keep putting the effort in, your skillset will be recognised. He’s a smashing fella, too.”

Were Farrell to be involved in Ireland’s autumn curtain-raiser against the All Blacks in Chicago next Saturday, he would be aged 32 and 32 days. The oldest ever Ireland debutant was Davy Tweed (35 years, 111 days) back in 1995. The most recent thirtysomething debutant was former Connacht prop, Nathan White (33 years, 345 days) in 2015.

It is time, now, for the Munster centre to grasp his latest chance of a lifetime. Many in Ireland have grumbled about Andy Farrell not bringing in enough fresh faces, two years out from the 2027 World Cup. Few, though, will be complaining if Tom Farrell takes to the pitch this November and starts making up for lost time.