{"id":667251,"date":"2026-10-27T23:04:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T23:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/667251\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T23:04:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T23:04:18","slug":"farmer-dad-of-ireland-rugby-star-had-typical-reaction-to-first-call-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/667251\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmer Dad Of Ireland Rugby Star Had Typical Reaction To First Call-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ulster’s James McNabney’s form has been rewarded with a maiden Ireland call-up ahead of their upcoming Nations Championship campaign.<\/p>\n

The 6’5″ flanker has been impactful for his province and Ireland boss Andy Farrell has backed the youngster to excel in the green jersey, labelling him a “specimen of a man”.<\/p>\n

James McNabney as well… We had him into (an alignment) camp on August 31\u2026 and that just goes to show we’ve been interested in him for a while,” Farrell said of the forward.<\/p>\n

“He’s some specimen of a man. And he certainly runs his weight.”<\/p>\n

Just 23-years-old, McNabney will be training with Ireland’s elite in and around their November meetings with Argentina, Fiji and South Africa.<\/p>\n

He is one of two uncapped players called-up, alongside provincial teammate Jamie Benson.<\/p>\n

McNabney’s farmer Dad has typical reaction to call-up<\/p>\n

\n Recommended\n <\/p>\n

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McNabney, who grew up on a family farm in Clough, outside Ballymena, rode horses during his youth before focusing fully on his rugby credentials.<\/p>\n

The back-row spoke to reporters on Tuesday about how he learned of his Ireland selection, revealing he was in Pretoria at the time.<\/p>\n

I was in Pretoria, over with Ulster to play the Bulls,<\/p>\n

“I was sitting in a coffee shop and opened my phone… because I hadn’t got an eSIM, so I was trying to connect to the hotel Wi-Fi.<\/p>\n

“But yeah I got the email and I was delighted.”<\/p>\n

Naturally his family were delighted, but his Dad’s reaction was certainly typical of an Irish farmer.<\/p>\n

‘Mum was very proud… my Dad… he didn’t know what way to take it at the start. He said: “Will you ever be home to farm again?”<\/p>\n

“But they’re both delighted for me and I appreciate the support they have given me.”<\/p>\n

“Mum was very proud. Dad, he didn’t know how to take it, at the start. He said, ‘Will you ever be home to the farm again?'” \ud83d\ude9c\ud83d\ude05<\/p>\n

@UlsterRugby forward James McNabney on learning of his @IrishRugby call-up and his parents’ reaction \ud83d\udc9a https:\/\/t.co\/gdJPLUPABd<\/p>\n

\u2014 Pat McCarry (@patmccarry) October 27, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Brilliant stuff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ulster’s James McNabney’s form has been rewarded with a maiden Ireland call-up ahead of their upcoming Nations Championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,282605,43],"class_list":["post-667251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-james-mcnabney","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667251","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=667251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}