Dec 19,2024
A taste of Ireland camp has Jack Boyle gagging for more and the Leinster prop is sure he's in the right place to kick on.
The 22-year-old loosehead from Dublin has overcome a difficult start to the season, including missing out on the Emerging Ireland tour through injury, to start two of Leinster’s last three games, which also saw a European debut against Bristol.
Picked as a training panellist by Andy Farrell for the Autumn Nations Series, Boyle saw team-mates from the 2022 U20s Grand Slam Sam Prendergast and Gus McCarthy push on for full honours, while fellow front-row forward Thomas Clarkson also make a senior debut in November.
"Picked up a bit of an illness and injury off the back of it.
"The timing with the Emerging Ireland tour and stuff like that, it was pretty big dampener to miss out on that.
"Thankfully, I was lucky enough to get back for that Connacht game, pre-Autumn Nations, and got picked as a training panelist off the back of it.
"Then went into camp then for the few weeks, four or five weeks and absolutely loved it.
"[I was] absolutely delighted to get the opportunity to go into camp and experience the atmosphere that the lads are always talking about here.
"I knew a lot of the Leinster lads going into it, but then working with Andy Farrell and Simon Easterby for the first time was really exciting as well.
"[I was] delighted to get a European start on my belt.
"Look, I want to push on. I'm very ambitious, having a taste of the Irish camp now, that's ultimately where I want to get to.
"You see how Sam and Gus have gone over the last few weeks, it's a credit to them and you can tell that their self-confidence, their self-belief has really come through, and you can see that they're expressing themselves, they're having fun and they're obviously adding to the team."
Boyle, a former St Michael’s College pupil, also has the combined experience of established international front rowers Cian Andrew Porter, Rabah Slimani and Tadhg Furlong to lean on, while he may also come up against Connacht’s Finlay Bealham when the teams for Saturday’s URC meeting at Aviva Stadium are named tomorrow.
"They've been unbelievably good to me," added Boyle, who has 14 Leinster appearances to his name since making his debut in February 2023.
"Not only this year, over the last two or three years I've been in the system.
"I'm extremely grateful, extremely lucky to be in the position I'm in.
"But off the back of that, it's, it's a bit of a weird mix because you're competing with the likes of Cian Healy and that kind of thing.
"So there's a balance to it. They've been unbelievably good to me. I continue to learn off them every day, but I suppose it's trying to get my own stuff right as well and trying to stamp my own way of things on my own game as well.
"Finlay is a seasoned professional. He's a very strong scrummager. He's very good at what he does, he's brilliant around the park.
"I suppose we have to get our stuff right first and foremost, but I have to look forward to the battle as well.
"Scrummaging against the best we have in Ireland.
"He's someone that I was learning off in camp as well so it’s good to share the pitch with him again. And hopefully I stand my ground."
