{"id":546918,"date":"2026-07-13T05:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T05:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/546918\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T05:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T05:44:10","slug":"sam-illo-on-ireland-his-debut-its-everything-ive-always-wanted-to-do-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/546918\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Illo on Ireland his debut: \u2018It\u2019s everything I\u2019ve always wanted to do\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Andy Farrell<\/a>\u2019s view beforehand, this would be a proper Test match, and in his view afterwards, it had been just that. Yet it was also noticeably more relaxed in the immediate aftermath than most Test venues. <\/p>\n

Media passes ensured access to pretty much everywhere, and the sprinkling of Irish and Japanese journalists formed an impromptu mixed zone in a large, rectangular room adjacent to the pitch entrance between the two dressingrooms at the end of each corridor.<\/p>\n

After Farrell\u2019s post-match briefing was quickly completed, the first to emerge was Sam Illo, who had actually come from the corridor leading to the Japanese dressingroom, for reasons that would soon become apparent. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t really describe it in words,\u201d said Illo of the greatest day in his career to date. \u201cI\u2019d say a dream come true. It\u2019s everything I\u2019ve always wanted to do \u2013 to play for Ireland. I\u2019ve probably not made it publicly known, but I kept it to myself. I\u2019m just happy with today, especially with the win as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pre-match, Japan coach Eddie Jones had forecast that his pack would \u201cdominate\u201d the Irish scrum<\/a>, especially in the second half, when Illo and fellow debutant, 20-year-old Billy Bohan, were introduced. <\/p>\n

Illo had been a little miffed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually just spoke to [Jones] there about it,\u201d said Illo, with a broad smile. \u201cI asked him about it. I was like, \u2018Where did that comment come from? Was it a case of you just felt we were inexperienced?\u2019 He just said he backs his lads.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then talk about timing. At that precise point, the agent provocateur also came walking down the same corridor to walk past Illo and the Irish media huddle. <\/p>\n

\"SamSam Illo is tackled by Japan’s Hayate Era and Keijiro Tamefusa. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

With that innately mischievous grin, Jones said: \u201cI was telling him how much I love him!\u201d And walked around us into the nearby press conference room.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time, I took it personally, Eddie,\u201d said Illo, in earshot of Jones. \u201cThat\u2019s something you take personally, but afterwards it\u2019s just rugby at the end of the day. It\u2019s grand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Illo was barely on the pitch when the next scrum was formed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a scrum nearly every five minutes,\u201d he said. \u201cThe ground wasn\u2019t holding up as well, so it wasn\u2019t making it easy. The lads did well, not just me, and kept it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Illo was driven back as the Irish scrum splintered before Andrea Piardi ordered a reset, to Illo\u2019s relief. \u201cThey actually kind of got me in the first one, so I was like, \u2018Ah, here.\u2019 I was like: \u2018I need to get reset and then just get down.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI just realised they were pulling me right early, so I was like, \u2018I need to load back up\u2019, because they were getting set early. I went straight on then. I just had to realise I had to put the weight back on to allow myself to get into strong shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Infectious joy of Ireland\u2019s new quartet outshines laboured win over JapanOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

But true to Eddie Jones\u2019 prematch hyperbole about Sojiro Otuska, his 21-year-old loosehead won a penalty against Illo not long after he arrived five minutes later. <\/p>\n

Farrell had responded by saying he expected Ireland to dominate in all areas, especially in the second half, but one senses Jones upping the ante for his young props was music to Farrell\u2019s ears. <\/p>\n

That much was proved when Bohan revealed afterwards: \u201cWe had a team meeting, or a forwards meeting yesterday, and we walked in and that was on the screen, the comment he made.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good challenge. We put the challenge down. Obviously, they put a bit of pressure on, but I think we did pretty well, so I\u2019m proud of all the lads.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SamSam Illo with his first cap after making his debut for Ireland. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Farrell reminded us all in the immediate aftermath of this game that, for Illo and Bohan, the learning from being put under such intense scrum pressure at Test level are \u201cabsolutely priceless\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also said: \u201cEven Sam and Billy in the carry sometimes \u2013 you feel the difference between the URC and international rugby. Same for Bryn [Ward]. They\u2019ll use that and kick on.\u201d<\/p>\n

It will be fascinating to see how the four debutants progress from him. For the two Connacht props, the chances of Illo being a bolter for the World Cup are perhaps slightly greater. This is due to him being a tighthead as much as his age, whereas the door opened for Bohan in part due to the slew of looseheads being sidelined.<\/p>\n

As Connacht will likely discover next season, producing internationals can be a double-edged sword, for it will likely restrict their provincial game time if the new caps continue to be part of Ireland\u2019s plans. <\/p>\n

But both props have something else going for them, over Ward and his provincial team-mates anyway, in that Connacht edging out Ulster for eighth place in the URC means Bohan, Illo, Hansen et al will be exposed to some stellar European games next season. <\/p>\n

And, most importantly, they have a taste of all this now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Andy Farrell\u2019s view beforehand, this would be a proper Test match, and in his view afterwards, it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[25747,61,60,1449,86133,43,3654],"class_list":["post-546918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-andy-farrell","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-nations-championship","tag-news","tag-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}