Murray Kinsella Reports from Portugal

TWO ROADS DIVERGED and Tadhg Beirne chose the one that led to a green jersey. He has no regrets about his decision.

In an alternate universe, the 31-year-old could be part of Warren Gatland’s Wales team for this weekend’s Six Nations meeting with Ireland in Cardiff. Back in 2018, Beirne was on the pathway to becoming Welsh-qualified.

Scarlets were mad to hang onto him and his brilliant performances would have led to Wales honours. Given that his Scarlets boss at the time, Wayne Pivac, took on the Wales job in 2019, we can say with certainty that Beirne would have played in the red shirt. The Welsh fans would have loved to have him on board.

But Irish rugby had made its play to bring Beirne home. It hadn’t worked out for him in Leinster a few years earlier but it was clear that the Kildare man was now good enough to step up to Test rugby. He signed on with Munster, was capped by Joe Schmidt in Australia in that summer of 2018, and hasn’t looked back since.

“I only ever wanted to play for Ireland, that was the reality,” said Beirne today at Ireland’s pre-Six Nations training camp in the Algarve in Portugal.

“I think when it became a talking point that there was an opportunity to play for Ireland, the only thing I wanted to do was come back and play for Ireland.

“So I didn’t have a conversation with Warren but I did have a conversation with Wayne before I left Scarlets and he tried to encourage me to stay because he did say the World Cup was the following year and I’d be qualified for it and all that but I think I’d made my decision before that, that I wanted to wear green for the World Cup not to be in red.

“So it didn’t really cross my mind too much, to be honest, because I wanted to play in green. If I felt I didn’t have a chance maybe it would have been a different conversation.”

Beirne playing Wales last year in Dublin. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

Beirne’s ties to Wales remain strong. His wife, Harriet, is Welsh and some of her family will be at the game on Saturday, roaring on the home team.

Beirne assures us that Harriet is an Irish fan now, though.

“I’m over and back to Wales every so often,” he said. “I had a brilliant time over there and a lot of people I know I’ll come up against, a few lads I played with, so it’s a cool fixture to get to play in.

“My wife might be Welsh but she’ll be wearing green on Saturday.”

Beirne has direct insight into what makes the Welsh players tick. He was part of an excellent Scarlets team, the last Welsh team to win a trophy. 

The regions have struggled to compete in recent years and there has been other turmoil off the pitch, but Beirne knows how the Welsh can turn up for their national team, forget about all of that, and deliver excellent performances. They’re often different beasts in that red jersey.

“I learned that they’re incredibly passionate about the Welsh flag and the actual Welsh team,” said Beirne of his two years with Scarlets. 

“Watching those lads head off, they’d be very excited heading away and they were very passionate about playing for their country.

“It’s much like in here and a lot of other countries, but I suppose when you’re from the outside looking in and you get to see first-hand how much it means to them, they show that at times, especially when they’re at home, how much playing for Wales means to them.”

Ireland have lost three of their last four visits to Cardiff. One of those defeats was Beirne’s Six Nations debut in the 2019 Six Nations when he started in the second row for a miserable 25-7 loss. He remembers being stunned by the raucous atmosphere at the Principality Stadium.

Beirne training in Portugal. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

“We’ve spoken about that this week, about how big an occasion it can be, not to be shocked by the noise, by the intensity that they can bring from being on at home.

“That’s on us to deal with those pressures. In the past, in the last couple of times I’ve played there, my first cap in the Six Nations was there and unfortunately it didn’t go particularly well, they ended up winning a Grand Slam in the last game of the season.

“That was my first experience of it and it really shocked me in terms of noise level, just the intensity of the game.”

The most recent visit was an unhappy one too, as Peter O’Mahony was sent off and Ireland came up short on a 21-16 scoreline in an empty stadium.

“I feel like we’ve learned and we’ve come a long way since that day,” said Beirne. “I think if you watch that game and you compare that to how we play now, we’ve come a long way.

“Someone made the joke in here, ‘If you make a mistake, how long does it last?’ and one of the lads said ’30, 40 years!’ but in the moment you have to move on pretty quickly.

“That will always probably sit in the back of my mind because that was one of those games that we could have won.”

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Originally published at 17.00