Tommy O'Donnell
From: Cahir, Co Tipperary
School: Coláiste Dun Iascaigh
Club: Munster
Position: Back row
Ireland caps: Six
Tommy O’Donnell won his first cap for Ireland in the 2013 summer tour of North America, and most recently featured in the games against South Africa and Georgia. However, if a youth development officer hadn’t been sent to take some PE lessons at Coláiste Dun Iascaigh in Cahir, Co Tipperary, Tommy O’Donnell might never have played rugby.
He was 13 years old at the time (many of his colleagues started between the ages of eight and 10) and his sports of choice at the time were swimming, hurling and football.
“The timing happened perfectly,” says Tommy. “Rugby was growing.”
A bus was run to rugby training every Friday for Tommy and the chosen few and the game is now Tommy’s career.
Farming is in the Cahir man’s blood. His dad was a butcher and had beef and sheep, and for many Christmases they kept up to 150 turkeys. Tommy had a day off school every year to kill the turkeys.
“It was a day of non-stop plucking. It was a once-a-year thing – it was a really big social day.”
Was he one of those who had enough of all things turkey by the time Christmas Day came around?
“Absolutely not. I’m not going to do all that work and then not enjoy some turkey at the end of it.”
Tommy laughs, though he does concede that some of the neighbours have been turned off turkey as a result of helping out.
The farm is still operating, supplying beef to the butcher shop, which is now leased.
Post-rugby, Tommy would like to work in the agriculture sector and is currently undertaking a degree in science and technology in UL.
“I’d like to work in the food production side of it such as in Dairygold or another food processor. I’d like to have some land and farm part-time as well.”
He has three brothers, one of whom is studying to be a civil engineer but is also interested in farming.
Tommy had his own little farm enterprise going growing up: “I had my cow and every year she had a calf ...” but never showed cattle, unlike Ulster and Ireland rugby player Rory Best who is “big into his pedigree Angus and show cattle.”
It’s not likely Tommy will have much time at home for Christmas.
“Munster have a pretty busy schedule. I’ll probably get home on Christmas Eve. And I’ll enjoy Christmas Day. I can have roast potatoes, but I’ll have to stay away from desserts, chocolate and wine. I won’t pig out but I’ll enjoy the Christmas feeling and relaxing. We don’t have a normal Christmas. You can totally miss out on Stephen’s night and New Year’s Eve.
On Christmas nights out with his friends, he says: “I might show face or I’ll meet them for coffee the next day. I’ll be the fresher of them and I’ll still get the craic and the stories.”
Tommy doesn’t resent the sacrifices.
“I realise how hard it was to get into the jersey in the first place. I’ll have plenty of Christmases in the future.”
If we were doing this interview with him this time next year, what would Tommy hope to have achieved in the interim?
“I’d be hoping to have had a really good year. To be centrally involved in the World Cup. I’m very determined. I have a lot of goals set out. That is the main goal at the moment – to be playing my best rugby.
Not having a lot of international experience, playing for Ireland can be nerve-racking but Tommy says it’s something he’s been working hard on with sports psychologists. However, the biggest difference of all between playing with Munster and Ireland has nothing to do the game itself. Rather, it’s the anthems.
“No matter how excited you are, the anthem is going to ramp you up.”
Robbie Diack
From: Johannesburg, South Africa
School: Michaelhouse
Club: Ulster
Position: No 8
Ireland caps: Two
South African Robbie Diack has been living in Ireland since 2008. He plays rugby with Ulster and played his first game with Ireland against Argentina in the summer. He has recently gone into the wine business with fellow South African and Ulster rugby team-mate Ruan Pienaar.
When Robbie and Ruan had a flight home cancelled after a Heineken Cup game in Italy’s Treviso, the guys stayed another night in their hotel and relaxed over a glass of red wine.
The conversation turned to how they felt South African wine wasn’t well represented in the UK, but soon arrived at a solution: bringing the wine over themselves.
This was easily facilitated by the fact that Robbie’s brother and sister-in-law, Tom and Hayley Breytenbach, own a vineyard (Brenaissance Wine & Stud Estate) in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Brenaissance is not only home to a vineyard but beef cattle are also reared on the farm, and the Breytenbachs also export plums to Tesco in the UK. There is even a pizza and wine-pairing café on site.
“Tom and Hayley have Boran cattle and they only supply two restaurants in Cape Town. It’s organic beef. They’re in the process of turning their farm into a sustainable farm. It takes seven to eight years to be fully organic.”
For a city boy, Robbie’s knowledge of agriculture is impressive. “I’ve picked up a lot from listening to them. We are a close-knit family. All decisions are spoken about.”
Robbie says Tom and Hayley are very protective of their wine, only selling it from the farm themselves. But when they came to Belfast and went with Robbie to meet Peter and Neil McAlindon from wine merchant Direct Wine Shipments: “We knew ... they were the right ones to represent us. It’s a family-run business and they’re very proud.”
It seems the McAlindons are not drawn to the wine just for the association with rugby royalty. “Peter and Neil knew nothing about rugby; they were more into football. I’m not even sure if they’ve even watched a game. It’s a quality shop and a quality business.
They won’t represent people who are bringing over average wines.”
Robbie and Ruan chose Ballybosch as the name for the wine. Bally because it features in the name of so many towns in Northern Ireland and bosch because the vineyard is located in Stellenbosch.
Such a practical exercise in marketing was underpinned by Robbie’s academic expertise as he is studying marketing, which he fits in around his professional rugby and the wine business.
“It takes a lot of juggling. I have exams in October and November. I missed a few exams because of the autumn series.”
Given that Robbie has a match on Stephen’s day against Connacht and another against Leinster on 3 January, will he be able to drink any of his wine over Christmas at all?
“You have to be careful what you’re eating. It’s a bit difficult the following day if you gone bananas with what you eat.”
In terms of his ambitions for this year, Robbie says: “Every professional rugby player dreams to be part of a World Cup experience.
“I would love nothing more than to be involved in a World Cup in a successful squad. Irish rugby is at a positive stage at the moment. There’s a great squad of players. But there’s a lot of rugby to be played beforehand and there’s a lot of competition in my position.”
Robbie contends it would still be a great honour to play for Ireland, even if they were playing South Africa. If Ruan Pienaar wasn’t injured during the autumn series and Robbie hadn’t been the 24th man on the squad, he could already have come face-to-face with his business partner.
“It would have been strange” he says.
How would he feel if that situation were some day to be realised? “Hopefully one day that is a situation.”
Robbie is now 29. On whether he’ll stay in Ireland once his rugby career finishes, he says: “The wine business is something for the future.”
He says the business might become a success and they might stay, but equally he and his wife have recently been given British passports which gives them the opportunity and the ability to choose, and move between Ireland and South Africa which he says is “a great privilege”.
Robin Copeland
From: Gorey, Co Wexford
School: Kilkenny College
Club: Munster
Position: No 8
Ireland caps: One
Robin Copeland made his Irish debut against Georgia in November’s Autumn Series. He was signed by Munster in July having played with Cardiff Blues since 2012.
Robin can’t remember his first sight of a rugby ball but he began playing with Gorey Rangers AFC when he was six.
“It was always rugby for me,” he says. “There was a family tradition of it. My dad was a good player back in the day and all my uncles and cousins played too, so we’re a rugby-mad family.”
It was the team atmosphere that attracted him to rugby initially and the fact that he made a lot of friends through the game.
“It was a good way to release some of the hyperactivity when I was a kid and I like the fact that rugby is a game where there is a spot for everyone: slow, fast, fat, skinny, tall or short.”
He believes that being reared on a farm did help him.
“It was probably mostly with core strength and speed, building those up while lifting and carrying sprongs full of hay and running around after cattle.”
His main influence in rugby terms has been his father, Ned.
“Dad was always coaching us a bit and telling us where we went wrong.”
Robin trains for two to three hours a day.
“There is a lot of off-the-feet stuff to prepare for games and training, too. Diet requires constant planning and thought to make sure I get enough of what I need to stay fuelled up and recover as best as possible. It’s a time-consuming and expensive part of the trade.”
What attributes does he believe a good player needs?
“They’d include a good mindset to work hard at their strengths and weaknesses, ability, self-belief is a big one, too, without being selfish. Patience, also, and not allowing yourself to get frustrated when things don’t go your way. After that it’s probably down to genetics and luck, to being physically gifted and lucky enough to stay injury-free.”
He regards his greatest achievement as getting the player of the tournament award on the emerging Ireland tour to Romania last summer.
He has to go back a while for his worst day.
“Losing the AIL final – in 2010, I think it was.”
The most difficult thing about being a rugby professional is having to spend a lot of time away from family and friends but there are many good aspects, he says.
“Getting paid for doing what I love doing, good hours and being around a good bunch of mates all day.”
Robin has completed a business degree – something he may use in the future.
“Event management was what I wanted to get into. It’s an interesting and varied job, and something I would be keen to look into after rugby.”
The Gorey man is looking forward to Christmas at home this year after spending the last two in Wales. Christmases at home involve early starts, yard work, a cooked breakfast and cousins coming over.
“We’d only open gifts then and we had to spread them out through the day – not easy when you’re a child, I’ll tell you.”
And his future ambitions?
“To find a good woman ... if you’re reading – ha ha. And the World Cup in 2015 is what everything is aimed at for now. That’s the dream anyway.”
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