Hayes happy he played part in Chiefs’ rise from Championship to champions
Former No 8 now back in Ireland-farming and coaching Shannon in the All-Ireland League after stellar career
TOM HAYES has to curtail our call, it’s time for the bull to be loaded on to a waiting truck.
Such is the day-to-day life of this former professional rugby player who has returned to farming since hanging up his boots in 2013 due to a chronic back problem.
By day, he contract-rears replacement heifers for dairy farming – “babysitting other fellas’ cattle” as he puts it – while by night he coaches the Shannon firsts who are flying it in Division 1B of the All Ireland League.
Coaching was a serious consideration when he retired, but returning home meant it was unlikely to be a full-time gig.
Still, between managing his old club and at Glenstal, he’s f lat out.
“I’m kept going with both of them, there isn’t enough hours in the day between the farming and the coaching,” he says with a chuckle.
“I’m not the only one, I hear Andy Graham, the Ballymena head coach, is flat out between having an agricultural contracting business and farming with 120-odd cows as well as coaching. He’s kept going as well.”
He left the league in 2005 after struggling to make the grade with Munster where his brother John is an all-time great.
Instead, he tried his luck in England and moved to Plymouth before his career-defining call came.
When he landed in Exeter in 2008, Hayes (right) knew the club was going places but he couldn’t have foreseen that the team he was joining would be English champions within a decade.
They had a reputation as a coming team and everything he gleaned from his first impression confirmed it.
His career ended before the journey reached its conclusion in Twickenham last May, but he can always say he played his part in the remarkable rise of the Premiership winners under Rob Baxter.
Now back in Ireland, he can reflect on his role with some pride as his former club go toe to toe with Leinster at the Aviva Stadium this evening.
“I wasn’t thinking in terms of the club being English champions or anything like that, but I did know that of all the clubs in the Championship, they were the club that was going to get to the Premiership, they were going about their business in all the right ways and everything,” he recalled of the move.
“They were building something that was sustainable in terms of getting into the Premiership and prospering there. That wasn’t a surprise.
“I met up with Exeter on a Wednesday or Thursday and had signed by the following Monday. It didn’t take me long, I knew it was a club going places.
“It was a no-brainer for me really. We had a couple of ex-Exeter players down in Plymouth and they were impressive in their approach to training and that and, having gone from the Munster set-up, it was plain that Exeter were making the right moves in terms of becoming a really professional outfit who were trying to get to the cutting edge of the game.
“They were just doing the right things really about trying to get there.”
The Chiefs have gained admirers for the way they’ve run their business under the stewardship of Tony Rowe, while on the pitch they play a refreshing brand of rugby under Baxter that, while not good enough to beat Leinster last weekend, has got them places.
“The big thing with Rob was creating the right environment and setting the tone for a group as to what identity the group wanted,” he said.
“Most people who played with or against Rob were expecting him to be the fella who was giving out the Alex Ferguson hair-dryer treatment more often than not, but he’s not like that at all.
“He’s a pragmatic realist. People might hear pragmatism and think he’s conservative or a bit dour, but he’s not like that at all in fairness. He’s very straightlaced.
“When it comes to analysing something after a game, it’s not always about shouting and roaring at fellas, telling them they should be ashamed of themselves if something goes wrong – the same as he won’t be blowing too much hot air up their backsides either if things go right.
“When we got promoted we couldn’t have been too conservative. We made teams have to worry about us a little, rather than going up to the Premiership and try and contain teams.”
He remains in touch with his old club and travelled over for a reunion for Gareth Steenson’s testimonial last summer.
Last Sunday he tuned in to watch Leinster win a gruelling encounter at his old home ground and believes their capacity to make less errors got them over the line. Today, he’ll again watch from afar as they go at it again.
Failure to win would likely end Exeter’s European ambitions, but given where they’ve come from and what they’ve achieved it seems clear that their presence at the elite end of the Champions Cup is here to stay.
And as he makes his way around the farm, Hayes can take some satisfaction from the role he played.