DEVIN TONER ON LOCKDOWN AND LAST DANCES
Taking care of his son, cooking and Michael Jordan have helped Devin Toner deal with lockdown but rather than prepare for his own last dance, he aims to play on for as long as he can…
FILLING the hours during these long days in quarantine has proved challenging for many Irish people. Not so much in the Toner household. Life has become pretty hectic since his son Max arrived into the world in September 2017. Rugby may be on a hiatus at present, but Devin Toner is being kept on his toes at home.
‘For me, it’s just like Groundhog Day at the minute because there’s no creche so it’s just literally get up, look after him, cook some food, keep looking after him, he goes down for a nap, then you have a bit of a rest and then he gets back up again,’ the Leinster and Ireland lock explains.
‘It’s going and going and going. It’s between him, a bit of cooking and then we’re doing our training as well so we’re running three times a week and we’re doing our weights three times as week as well so you get a bit of time off with that.’
Still, the current break in normality has given him a chance to spend some quality time at home. The current season was Toner’s 14th as a professional rugby player. Life in the pro game can be a grind with plenty of long days and nights away from home.
Toner always comes off as a thoughtful and grounded character and it’s no surprise to hear he’s embraced the current status quo. He’s adapted to the new normal pretty seamlessly, and it seems to have done his young son a power of good as well.
‘We feel like he’s learning a lot more from us as well,’ says Toner.
‘Well, obviously the creche is brilliant for him but I felt like we’re getting a lot more time with him. I find his grammar is getting a lot better and his speech is getting a lot better. We’re able to teach him a bit more. He’s only two and a half, he’ll be three in September, but it’s little things that you’re noticing.
‘I’m loving being able to spend this amount of time with him as well.’
The sporting shutdown has also given Toner ample time to concentrate on one of his major passions in life: cooking. He regularly showcases his culinary talents with videos on his Instagram account. From gnocchi to risotto, Toner is a dab hand in the kitchen.
‘A few people text me about it but it’s really good that people enjoy it because I enjoy doing it. It’s a bit hard cooking and filming with one hand. Doing one-handed cooking is pretty hard!
‘I just try to put up what I enjoy doing. I’ve gotten a chance to do it a bit more, being at home and being able to think about it a bit more. I’m really enjoying it to be honest.
‘It’s always been in there. It’s in the family. My mother is a brilliant cook so are my brother and sister. We’ve all grown up with it but more so in the last few years.’
He’s in good company at home as well. His wife, Mary, is a Ballymaloe-trained chef who had a sevenmonth stint working at Chapter One, a Michelin-starred restaurant in central Dublin. She also has her own baking website, Bakers and Cakers.
‘She’s obviously the dessert queen in this house!
‘Again, we both really enjoy it. I watch a lot more videos online than she would. I follow a load of people on Instagram looking at videos to do a bit of research whereas she wouldn’t do that much.’
Toner cites chefs like Frank Prisinzano, Eric Matthews and Luke Selby as inspirations.
We inquire if he tunes into Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares from time to time?
‘Ah... not really. I keep an eye on it sometimes. Again, we don’t really have time. People are always asking, “what are you watching during quarantine?”. We aren’t watching any more TV than before all of this because we’ve got Max.
‘We’ve basically got CBeebies on in the background the whole time. So he goes down at seven o’clock and then we have an hour of TV a night so we don’t get to watch any more than we would have watched normally. It’s more YouTube videos and Instagram stories that I’d be watching.’
He has found time to watch The
Last Dance, however. Netflix’s 10part series chronicling Michael Jordan and the all-conquering Chicago Bulls of the 1990s is an absorbing watch and has captivated audiences worldwide.
‘I just finished it there yesterday. I enjoyed every bit of it.
‘I especially loved seeing all the old stuff, from the ’80s. I love Larry Bird so just seeing all that and the Magic Johnson stuff was brilliant. Just seeing his rise. It just kind of reaffirmed what a legend he was.’
There are many stars in the series but Bulls coach Phil Jackson, aka the Zen Master, quietly steals the limelight with his calm and cool approach. There’s more than a hint of Leo Cullen about him with that air of quiet confidence?
‘It’s funny you say that,’ Toner replies. ‘I do kind of see that now.’
The Windy City has a special place in Toner’s heart, of course. It was the setting for one of his great days in an Ireland shirt back in 2016 when Joe Schmidt’s Ireland stormed to a maiden win over the All Blacks at Soldier Field, ending 111 years of hurt in the process. The triumph came four days after the Chicago Cubs – the city’s long-suffering baseball team – had lifted a 108-year hex when they beat the Cleveland Indians to win the World Series.
‘It was unbelievable. That whole week was an absolute fairytale,’ Toner recalls.
There must be something in the water in Chicago.
There was also a memorable visit to Bulls HQ for a tour of their training facilities. Toner – all 6ft 10in of him – couldn’t resist and dunked into one of the baskets.
Jordan would certainly have approved of that effort.
For once in his career, Toner also encountered facilities that were tailored for an athlete of his size.
‘It was brilliant because all their
‘THE BODY HAS NEVER FELT BETTER, I’VE BEEN REALLY LUCKY’
gym equipment was set up for tall b ****** s… so I fitted into everything and it was too big for everyone else!’
When Ireland toured Japan in the summer of 2017, Toner arrived into his hotel room in Tokyo to find that the hotel staff had fitted an extension on his bed. He bats away suggestions that it was a personal request.
‘The hotel did it but no one asked for it, do you know what I mean?
‘They put a little thing at the end of the bed but I didn’t need it. It was a massive bed anyway. I bet they thought this feckin’ freak was coming to stay with them! Sure I’ve spent my life with my feet hanging out the end of the bed so it didn’t really matter at that stage.’
Growing up in the GAA hotbed of Moynalvey in County Meath, basketball was never on Toner’s radar. He wonders whether he would have taken a different path if he had grown in Dublin. Once he enrolled in Castleknock, he took up rugby and the rest is history.
‘I would have loved to have tried it a little bit because I had a hoop in the back yard, but it was never an option to play anywhere.’
His height was seen as an immediate advantage when he began playing rugby in secondary school. Toner reckons he was 6ft 2in when he started first year. By the time he was sitting his Leaving Certificate, he was a giant among boys.
Leinster soon came calling and he eventually became a stalwart at the province.
To date, he has made 244 appearances for Leinster – a testament to his durability and consistency. He won his 70th cap for Ireland in the 24-12 loss to England in Twickenham back in March.
Looking back at the iconic second rows he has partnered in engine rooms for province and country reveals a stellar cast: Brad Thorn, Nathan Hines, Damian Browne – the adventurer who rowed solo across the Atlantic – and Paul O’Connell, among others. Perhaps it’s good to have a bit of madness in you in order to become a front-line lock in the modern game?
‘Yeah. I wouldn’t really call myself a lunatic,’ he jokes.
‘I think you need a bit of yin and yang. You need someone with a clear head to run the lineout and then you need a mad b ***** d beside you.’
Word on the street is that the provinces will be back in action in August with an interprovincial series set to take place behind closed doors at Aviva Stadium. Nothing is certain, however, and trying to adhere to a training plan when you’re not quite sure what you’re training for has proved challenging for Toner in recent months. It’s been exactly 90 days since his last game of rugby – that Six Nations defeat in London – and it remains to be seen when he and his teammates will be back on the field again.
‘Yeah, it’s hard to get motivated. ‘You have to take all the equipment out and set it all up, then take it all back in again. Once you’re doing it, it’s not too bad. Again, we’ve been blessed with the weather because we’re able to lift a few weights in the back garden.
‘I think there’s no weights left in the Leinster gym. They assigned loads of dumb bells and bars to everyone so they can do them at home.
‘I bought myself an assault bike so I’m keeping the fitness up with that. It’s horrible. Then we do running three times a week as well so it’s good to have a schedule or timetable of what you need to do.
‘It hasn’t been too bad but I just think the motivation to try and get up and get it done is hard, but once you get into it it’s grand.’
Unbeaten in 19 games, in all competitions, Leinster were on a seemingly unstoppable surge this season. Talk of an ‘Invincibles’ campaign grew louder with every passing week, but anything Cullen’s men manage to achieve now will more than likely have an asterisk attached to it.
The European Champions Cup final was supposed to take place yesterday at Stade Vélodrome in Marseille but those plans have long been shelved. Always pragmatic, Toner has a measured take on the current state of things.
‘There’s no point crying over it so we just have to get on with it and what happens, happens. Obviously we had a very good season up until the end and hopefully we’ll be able to pick up where we left off but, again, there’s no point crying about it. There’s nothing we can do about it.’
Like everyone else, Toner’s future remains uncertain. He will turn 34 on June 29, which is still relatively young by second row standards. His IRFU central contract expires that month as well. His former Leinster team-mate Thorn was still togging out into his forties, it must said.
‘Maybe not 41!’ he answers, when asked if he wishes to emulate the teak-tough All Black.
‘Yeah, the body has never felt better, to be honest. I know I had a bit of a hiccup about a year and a half ago with my ankle but I got that issue sorted and it’s sorted now. Other than that I’ve been really lucky with injuries but, as I said, I’m feeling good and the body is good so I’m going to go as long as I can. I’m going to try to anyway!’
You’d hope that this is not the last dance for Toner at Leinster?
‘Yeah, I think it will all get cleared up in the next couple of weeks,’ he replies. ‘It will all become a lot clearer when we come back to training, I think.’
Looking further ahead into the future, perhaps he may move from grappling with opponents to gastronomy?
‘I’m obviously very aware that I might be coming up to near the end of the rugby and I have to keep an eye on something in the background but the only thing I’m really getting any joy out of is the cooking so if I get involved in that, I’d love to. What that entails, I have no idea. I don’t think I could be a chef. I don’t think my back could take that but I’d love be involved somehow. What that is, I don’t know yet.’
One thing at a time?
‘Exactly.’