Injury gave me a chance to take a break and I’m feeling better than ever
JOE SCHMIDT has always seen the value in Devin Toner. Ever since he arrived on these shores back in 2010 as Leinster’s new head coach, the Kiwi has put enormous faith in the giant lock.
It was the same when Schmidt took over the reins with Ireland. Before Toner injured his ankle against England in the opening round of the Six Nations, he had featured in 54 of Schmidt’s 61 games in charge – starting 46, including both of the historic wins over the All Blacks, in Chicago and Dublin. He knew that his coaches and teammates rated him, but it wasn’t always that way among the wider public. For years, Toner felt he had a point to prove. He admitted in another interview back in September that he had been ‘written off’ from the moment he set foot on a field with Leinster. ‘Someone has asked me that before,’ he said. ‘They were talking about listening to people from the outside, I was thinking about looking up… yeah, the first five or six years, I know that, either you love me or hate me. I know outside of Leinster, people don’t like me as a player, didn’t like me at the start.
‘Just because I stand out. In the early years, I didn’t carry the ball well or I missed a few tackles, I was always good in the lineout but (people) didn’t really see what I offered.
‘The last few years starting with Ireland and Joe, people have seen it.
‘The first five or six years, I used to look up on forums what people thought of me, the amount of shite that you’d see and people calling you out and stuff. And it is that time of my career that I learnt to block it all out. I don’t read papers, I don’t look at media, I don’t search my name, I don’t look at Twitter.’
He has nothing to prove these days. Toner’s stock has never been higher.
When the Leinster lock hobbled off during the secondhalf of that harrowing defeat by England, he left a huge void in the pack’s set-piece operation. Ireland stuttered at the lineout and restarts for the rest of that ill-fated championship.
If people didn’t see what Toner brought to this Ireland setup before, it was glaringly apparent in recent months.
With 80 minutes under his belt from last weekend’s Pro14 meeting with Glasgow, he is back in the engine room for this afternoon’s meeting with Toulouse.
He reveals he injured his ankle in the lead-up to the post-Christmas clash with Munster at Thomond Park, landing awkwardly on teammate Vakh Abdaladze’s heel during a lineout drill.
The injury got progressively worse before it blew out during that championship opener in Dublin.
Amazingly, it was the first major injury in Toner’s 14 years as a professional rugby player.
He spent three months on the sidelines in recovery, a rarity for such a durable player. Toner was kept busy off the field, however.
His 18-month-old, Max, keeps him and his wife, Mary, fully occupied and in that scenario it is hard to find the time to become too preoccupied or stressed by rugby.
Many players speak of the positive effect that fatherhood has on their playing careers. Toner certainly agrees with that viewpoint.
‘I’ve said it before but it (bringing up a child) takes your focus away from rugby, so on your free time, you’re literally focused on him all the time,’ he explained.
‘Our lives revolve around him now – when he’s going for his nap, trying to entertain him, basically. We don’t have a lot of free time to ourselves or for me thinking about rugby or anything else.
‘So it kind of takes your focus off it. It kind of means when you’re in here, when you’re on duty, you’re thinking more about what you’re trying to do, to get more work done.’
Not that Toner was ever a rugby-obsessive like his teammate Johnny Sexton in the first place. The 32-year-old has always comes across as a calm and relaxed character.
‘I’ve always been kinda laid back and go-with-the-flow,’ he admitted.
‘When it comes to line-outs I might over-think things a little bit but not too much, to be honest.’
He will have his hands full today against Toulouse’s giant second-row combination of Richie Gray and Richie Arnold. It won’t phase him, though. Nothing seems to rattle Toner these days.
The Meathman is contracted with the IRFU until June 2020. He will be 34 by then, but he is keen to keep going. He’s knows his value.
‘I’ll be looking to go on,’ he added.
‘After this injury, like I said, as injuries go it was very good but I think it’s given me a chance – it’s given me nine weeks to get the rest of my body.
‘It just gives you a chance to rejuvenate and get back into it and I’m feeling better than ever now to be honest... I really can’t wait to get back out.’