Pride of the family Adam won’t let link with Lions faze him
SHARP as a tack, overnight sensation Adam Byrne reminds you he has been around a while, an unused Leinster sub at Ulster in December 2012 before making a fleeting debut versus Connacht the following week. He was just gone 18, doing exams and on the sub-academy books, when he took a call from Joe Schmidt, convinced it was one of his mates winding him up before the Leinster coach assured him he was for real.
‘I didn’t know what to expect. It was stepping into the unknown but once I got on against Connacht, it was only six minutes but I got a couple of carries and it was just class. I remember one of the carries, to hear the crowd roaring I just knew it was something I wanted to do and I want more of it.’
Four years he had to wait, though, to come of age properly – a transformation you would have got long odds on as recently as early October.
When the 23-year-old stepped into an Aviva Stadium lift the day of the Munster derby, surplus to team requirement and told to mingle with supporters, you’d never have imagined the Roy of the Rovers streak that would unfold over winter – nine tries in 11 starts after injury suddenly opened the selection door.
Such is the level of this speedy impact, England World Cup winner Will Greenwood has even chosen him as a Lions tour bolter. ‘The lads were giving me a bit of a slagging over it. It’s nice to hear your name mentioned in that kind of conversation, but I kept my head down. It’s extremely competitive at Leinster. All I’m focusing on is the next training session and what I could improve on.’
Getting better was a career-saving necessity for the winger a few years ago. But for the revival of the Ireland sevens team he could well have been released at the end of his academy stint. Instead, the short game’s format provided timely exposure to keep his dream alive.
‘It was definitely a help. I was training away in here, wasn’t really getting a look-in. Sevens isn’t going to suit every position in 15s but for a wide player it’s great, you are on the ball a lot, get to practise skills. I was throwing over the course of a weekend about 60 passes whereas in a (15s) game you might only throw four or five.
‘To work on your passing and your tackling in the wide channels, work on your footwork and your speed, I really enjoyed it… showed the coaches more of a side to my game.’
Leo Cullen has certainly taken note and while Byrne disbelievingly claims not to know the exact number of tries he has scored, claiming setting up tries is nearly as much fun, his sudden emergence has made him his family’s most prominent sports star after years living in the slipstream of younger brother Sam, snapped up as a schoolboy by Manchester United and now at Everton.
Byrne remembers coming home from school often to find soccer glitterati, such as former Celtic boss Neil Lennon, in their Kildare home courting his brother.
But with injury slowing his sibling’s progress in making the grade in England, next Saturday’s Champions Cup quarter-final is the family’s biggest sporting occasion yet.
Wasps await at a nearly sold-out Aviva Stadium and Leinster, beaten twice by them last season, are keen to make amends.
‘It’s not like we have a score to settle, more like we want to give a performance to ourselves and to our fans especially.
‘Hopefully, we’ll come out on the