Thomas Clarkson delighted with crazy, surreal Ireland bow

Thomas Clarkson says making his Ireland debut against Argentina was "crazy" and "surreal".

The Leinster tighthead prop was originally including as a 'training panellist' for the pre-Autumn Nations Series camp in Portugal, one of five players outside the official 35-man squad.

But opportunity arose for the 24-year-old when Tadhg Furlong was ruled out of contention with a hamstring injury and Tom O’Toole suffered a head injury against New Zealand.

That led to Clarkson being named on the bench but he was sprung into action sooner than expected when Finlay Bealham was yellow-carded in the 17th minute.

A few minutes later, the referee awarded a scrum to Ireland with flanker Josh van der Flier having to make way for the front row (below).

When Bealham’s sin-bin period was up, Clarkson made way but returned again to see out the final 27 minutes of the 22-19 win.

He said: "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.

"I had a big family here for the day. I think it was 10, so it was class.

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

While Clarkson was getting his first taste of senior international rugby, fellow Leinster prop Cian Healy came on to equal Brian O’Driscoll’s Irish caps record of 133.

"Tom O'Toole had that head knock towards the end of last week so even before the team was announced I kind of had a rough idea I might be playing and straight away [Cian] came up to me and said if I had any doubts about anything during the week to come up to him," said Clarkson of the 37-year-old, also known as ‘Church’, who will likely claim