This time four years ago, as the countdown neared to the 2019 World Cup, he had just been decorated as the Ulster schools player of the year and had entered the province’s academy. By December 2021 he still hadn’t made his Ulster debut but here Tom Stewart is, a fully fledged international and part of Ireland’s World Cup training squad.
“I was rugby mad growing up,” he admits, and last Saturday Stewart fulfilled his boyhood dream by making his international debut for the last 28 minutes of Ireland’s 33-17 win over Italy.
It’s a day that he readily admits will live with him forever, and with one abiding memory.
“I always thought singing the national anthem would be a big one for me, I was standing in the line beside Tadhg [Furlong] and he nudged me and said, ‘Look at the roof’ and I was kind of holding it in, I looked up at the roof and soaked it all in.
“I always remember watching the national anthem and thinking, ‘Aw, one day I’d love to be down there on the pitch singing it in front of all these people, about to play the game that I love’.
“Once I was standing there about to sing ‘Ireland’s Call’, it just kind of hit me and I soaked it all in, so the main thing for me was just standing there singing the anthem with so many people behind me.”
Andy Farrell and Paul O’Connell couldn’t have pre-planned Stewart’s big day much better, for if a 22-year-old debutant hooker could handpick a couple of props to be introduced alongside off the bench, he couldn’t do much worse than Furlong and Cian Healy.
Introduced straight after Italy’s first try, the trio made a palpable impact, adding energy and physicality in defence, and immediately powering through the Italian scrum, to dominate thereafter.
“Obviously the two boys are wildly experienced and they’ve got great careers. It’s a credit to them really. They helped me out a lot throughout the week. We spent a few nights just sitting down and watching videos, doing set-ups, just getting comfortable with what each of us felt like, and what each of us wanted to achieve from each scrum.
“So, we were there mentally I think which kind of helped us to be there physically on Saturday. Personally, I was a wee bit nervous to be honest but then once we got involved, and once we got into it Tadhg and Cian were really good. Just kind of telling me to muscle down, to do my own thing and we’ll get through it together.”
Stewart has been rooming with Calvin Nash, another debutant from last Saturday, as was the case on the Emerging Ireland tour to South Africa early last season. This duo have arguably been the biggest beneficiaries from that expedition. The hooker’s form took off in the second half of last season, when he won personal duels with rivals in the interpros and scored prolifically off Ulster’s maul, although if there is work still to be done a few metres out, he has the footwork, acceleration and finishing to do so.
Having scored seven tries in 11 appearances for Ulster in the 2022–23 season, he was called up to the Ireland squad for the 2023 Six Nations Championship, as cover for the injured Rónan Kelleher, before going on to break the URC try-scoring record for a season with 16.
“I think that’s a new thing,” he says of his strike rate. “It’s a bit of a fluke but hopefully I can keep it going. We’ll see.”
Farrell has admitted that Stewart’s inclusion for the 42-man World Cup training squad is in part an investment in the future, although at the very least the 22-year-old will be one of those players on standby and the next hooker in line to the established trio of Dan Sheehan, Kelleher and Rob Herring, his fellow Ballynahinch and Ulster man.
The engaging Stewart candidly admits that his scrummaging is an area he needs to improve.
“It’s probably one of the weaker parts of my game that I need to work on, especially when you get to international level. It’s such a big part of the game, the set-piece. It’s how you get your platform. It’s how you launch.
“There’s just little habits and little set-up moves, how I go about it, that I need to fix. And how I get into scrums more so and not get managed has been the main thing. That’s what I’ve been most worried about but I’m getting through, and all the boys have been very helpful.”
If there’s one thing that’s surprised him about the Irish environment, it is the togetherness, or as he puts it: “How close all the boys are, how well everybody gets on and everybody just mucks in and mucks out.
“If there’s ever any questions or anyone needs any help you can turn to the guy left or right of you, they’ve got an answer or they’ve got something or can put you on to someone else to try and help.
“I always found in age-grade stuff that it was kind of cliquey but obviously it’s a different level here now, it’s international rugby and everyone has the same goal at the end of the day and they want to do whatever they can to achieve that goal.
“But no, I just think the group is so special in the way that the boys get on and can mix in.”
Stewart readily admits to being “surprised” that he even made the cut and talks of revelling in the experience, and being a sponge as he watches the three other hookers go about their work, and learns off the coaches.
“That will help my game in the long run and what will be off the back of that will be.”
Either way, he is one of the squad’s winners.
