A TALE OF two props at Aviva Stadium last Friday night. At one end of the scale, Cian Healy is glad to get any focus on him out of the way as he prepares to equal Brian O’Driscoll’s record as Ireland’s most-capped player. In the same dressing room, Thomas Clarkson feels the need to give his notes one final look before he becomes Ireland’s latest debutant. Clarkson, 24, tries to cram as Healy, 37, interjects with some words of wisdom.

“At the last minute I was looking at my notepad and he came over and said ‘don’t worry about it, you know you can do it, just get out and do it’,” explains Clarkson.

“It’s typical Church, like I’m with him at Leinster the whole time, he’s that kind of comforting figure that you have, obviously he has so much experience. 

“Tom O’Toole had that keadknock towards the end of last week so even before the team was announced I kinda had a rough idea I might be playing and straight away he came up to me and said if I had any doubts about anything during the week to come up to him.”

Healy’s influence behind the scenes helped Clarkson deliver an impressive start to his international career, a step which arrived faster than he might have expected.

The Leinster prop was originally named as a ‘training panellist’ in Andy Farrell’s squad for the November internationals, but jumped up the queue due to Tadhg Furlong’s niggling hamstring and the head injury which ruled Ulster’s O’Toole out of Friday’s meeting with Argentina.

Clarkson celebrates at the final whistle. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

Clarkson had entered the Ireland camp with the understanding he would be leaving the squad after the pre-November training week in Portugal. Then a couple of days out from the opening game against New Zealand, Farrell came over for a word.

“Just ‘you are staying on…’ We were gyming on the Monday and the team was announced Tuesday morning so he kinda gives lads a heads up about what they are doing.

“So he was like ‘You are going to be involved, 24th [man] for the New Zealand game’ because obviously Tadhg had been in and out with a few niggles so I was half expecting it. It was either me or Jack Boyle because they normally take a tighthead so I kinda had a rough idea but he confirmed it there before we left.

I wasn’t supposed to be kept on after Portugal so to be kept on and end up playing, it was a bit crazy.”

A former Ireland U20 international, Clarkson has played 47 times for Leinster but just once in the Champions Cup. Test rugby is a significant step up, but he handled the occasion well and made some good impacts, with 10 proud family members watching on from the stands.

“It was a bit surreal, like coming out for the anthem, it hadn’t been that full for the warm up and then coming out and the fact it was dark as well so that added an extra bit… It was cool.”

His night was split into two shifts off the bench, getting an early taste as he replaced Josh van der Flier between the 24th and 29th minutes before he was sent in for Finlay Bealham just over 50 minutes into the game.

“I had to cool back down and then I had to warm back up. I was still pretty nervous coming on [the second time].

“I wasn’t expecting 30 minutes as well so I was just trying to just make sure I was going at it from the start. Probably blew my load a little at the start, I was running around like a headless chicken there for the first 20 minutes, the last 10 I kinda died a little. But I suppose that’s what you might expect, first cap.”

He can reflect positively on some good contributions, making a good defensive play to force an Argentina error in the final quarter and having a role in a scrum penalty win which saw the former Blackrock student receive most of the on-field plaudits.

“Bit unwarranted I think!” is Clarkson’s honest assessment. “Everyone’s involved. To come on, scrums hadn’t necessarily been going that well during the week, so it was just about trying to make it work on the day and thank God it did.”

After the game Clarkson soaked up the experience with his new Ireland teammates. He credits Bealham for a strong mentoring role over the last few weeks and was delighted to hit this career milestone alongside his Leinster teammate and friend, Sam Prendergast, who took over from Jack Crowley at out-half for the closing 18 minutes.

Clarkson and Prendergast both debuted against Argentina. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

“I’m good mates with Prendo anyway so we were chatting away. Obviously as a number 10 if you are not scoring any points he probably had a bit of frustration but, sure, if you are not happy getting your first cap there is something wrong with you.

“Typical Prendo, he wants everything to be 100% perfect and when it’s not he has got a big stroppy head on him. Similar to Sexto, I would have said.”

It wasn’t 100% from Ireland in general but it was important to get back to winning ways, and that was the message delivered from Farrell to his players post-game.

“Faz said yesterday [Thursday] and moving on from last week that three from three is a must now – Argentina, Fiji, Australia. We wanted four from four and then having lost last week we needed it. Probably a small bit of relief in that it went down to the wire.

“But general happiness, although I’m probably looking at it from a different way to most people because it is my first cap, but I think everyone is happy. There is so many milestones today I feel like you can’t help but feel happy.”