Gavin Thornbury gets his shot after 'a pretty dark time'

When Ireland head coach Andy Farrell named his squad for the Autumn Nations Series, as well as this week's Ireland A game against a New Zealand select XV, it came as a surprise to many that Connacht's Gavin Thornbury wasn't among the 49 players involved.

The second row has been teased with international call-ups before; Joe Schmidt was a fan of his, and brought him to a 2018 camp, although injury meant he couldn't take part, while a shoulder injury meant he wasn't considered for selection in the summer of 2021, when he was coming off the back of a stand-out season with Connacht.

That shoulder surgery led to him missing the bulk of last season, but the 29-year-old appears to be back on an upward trajectory, starting the season well for Connacht, who have battled back from a poor start in the URC to pick up back-to-back wins before the international break.

As is so often the case in rugby, one player's injury frustration will open the door for another, and after Munster's Thomas Ahern was ruled out of the Ireland A squad due to a shoulder issue of his own, it was Thornbury who got the call.

And the 6ft 8in lock has been thrown straight into the action, named alongside Joe McCarthy in the second row for tomorrow's A game at the RDS.

"It's exciting. I’m just really looking forward to Friday now," he says.

"I was really excited when I got the news that I was coming into camp and then to get the start is building on that again.

"For the week that's in it, we’re getting ready to play the All Blacks [New Zealand XV] and the other lads are playing South Africa so it’s an incredible week to be involved and to see how everything is run. It’s just been a really good experience for me."

In a nice twist of fate, Thornbury's (above) first