Leinster prop to earn his eighth cap against Portugal in Lisbon
Thomas Clarkson, often known as TC to his teammates and friends, draws the allusion from the lyrics of the 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon Top Cat. Robin McBryde, Leinster forwards coach, was the first to arrive, playing the 25-year-old tighthead prop’s theme tune.
He’s a good sport when the music breaks the silence in the steamy confines of a Portakabin at Ireland’s training facility on the outskirts of Lisbon. He occasionally mops his brow, and it has nothing to do with the questioning, but rather with the absence of air conditioning in 30+ degree heat.
Clarkson resided at Brittas Bay until he was nine years old and played rugby for Wicklow RFC before moving to Blackrock with his family – father Finbarr, mother Nina, and brothers Catey, Freddie, and Dominic – where he attended Willow Park and subsequently senior school. He used to swim competitively, with the butterfly stroke being his favorite, but rugby took over his attention.
Rugby was a great fit. “I was always the bigger kid, so I guess it was always fun to run through. “I always got the ball on tap penalties and stuff,” Clarkson says. His current Ireland teammate, Nick Timoney, coached him in his first year.
He won a Schools Senior Cup under Liam Turner’s captaincy, a Grand Slam with the Irish under-20s in 2019 (his first of two years on the age-grade squad), and will travel South Africa with Emerging Ireland in 2022. Smaller in stature than the behemoths he encountered while playing international age-grade rugby, he quickly realized that solid technique was required.
“I was never the biggest since when I graduated from school, I weighed only 110kg or so. I’m 128 kilograms (or something like that). There were players (at the under-20 level) who had played in the French Top 14 and the English Premiership. They were up to 120kgs at the time, so I knew I had to be technically proficient.”
Clarkson smiles as he recounts the effort of gaining muscle rather than bulk. “I was pretty overweight when I left school. I was thrown in fat camp with Dave Fagan (the late Leinster strength and conditioning coach).
“I was put on gym-heavy programmes to gain muscle and strength. You can see some of the lads coming through now, such as (Alex) Usanov and Paddy (McCarthy), putting up enormous numbers in the gym. I was nowhere near it. It’s something I’ve had to work on extensively over the previous few years. It’s probably why it took me a few years to start playing in larger games and getting capped.
“You can gain a lot of weight, which can be bad. You cannot move while wearing it. I believe I took it a little slower; it took me several years to put it on. Now, I feel like I can move more freely than when I was lighter.”
Ireland’s interim head coach, Paul O’Connell, praised Clarkson’s diligence in developing the proper body form for a tighthead prop. “He’s been great for us. We had him on the Emerging Ireland trip, and he has grown significantly since then. Obviously, he is in a pushing competition in the first row.
“He’s worked incredibly hard, and from the Six Nations to the summer tour, he looked even better in condition, which is a terrific sign of a man because he’s in that position where he’s wanting to add weight. Playing games and training might be exhausting at times.
“Players are aware of good players. Johnny (Sexton) would have always maintained that Clarkson is a very excellent footballer, complimenting him on his overall game. He feels really at ease on the ball. He had a couple strong carries (in Tbilisi), especially early in the game. They, like all of these guys, simply require more riding time.
“There’s plenty of things from the game he needs to work on, a little bit on maul defence, but he gets a chance now to go and do it again and show that he can improve.”
Clarkson made his Leinster debut five years ago, and he admitted he wasn’t prepared. He isn’t patient by nature. “It was frustrating. I made my debut really early. There were some injuries. I was definitely thrown in before I was ready. “The fact that I had a taste of that so early, I didn’t have to wait so long to break through.” It has been frustrating. There have been some lows.
He went on to say, “At the conclusion of the 2023 season, I had a run of games (for Leinster) when the scrums were particularly terrible. I was completely wrecked during the Six Nations (and then again when we went to South Africa).
“(It’s) the worst place to go if you lack confidence. It was probably the lowest. Since then, I’ve been progressing beautifully.”
It taught Clarkson to be resilient. The lessons were occasionally unpleasant, but the quality of the person and player ensured that he progressed.
Cian Healy, Andrew Porter, Tadhg Furlong, and Rabah Slimani oversaw the recuperation process while training with Leinster. “You’re scrumming against (them); you must learn. When you reach the standard, it boosts your confidence for the bouts.”
Psychologically, it allowed Clarkson to eliminate any doubts. He has improved over the last several years, getting his maiden Ireland cap against Argentina in November after being taken into the team as a training panellist. Injuries in the squad gave an opening, which Clarkson seized with both hands. In Lisbon, he will collect his eighth cap in eight months.
He’s had to be patient, too. “Tadhg (Furlong) and Slim (Rabah Slimani) received the nod for those few European matches. I was getting matches in between and felt like I was placing too much pressure on myself to do well. It was not happening, and I was feeling a little down about it.
“There are different expectations of you (with Ireland). I would like to put my hand up here. These are certainly lower-profile games for the general audience, but it’s essential for me to be able to take what I’ve learned from playing well for Leinster and apply it to Ireland.
“You won’t just go in having performed well on the outside. Obviously, they have the lads they can rely on, and they’ve been in the system for years.”
He is gaining that faith and trust game after game. And perhaps, like Top Cat, Clarkson will one day become “the indisputable leader of the gang”.
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