FOLLOWING A FRUSTRATING spell of almost three years without an international cap, Jordan Larmour was thrilled to be back in the match day reckoning during the 2024 Six Nations.

A test debutant against Italy in the 2018 Grand Slam season, Larmour made his 30th senior appearance for Ireland in a home encounter with Japan in July 2021. He did go on to feature twice against the Maori All Blacks on the successful Tour of New Zealand 12 months later, but it wasn’t until the Italians paid a visit to the Aviva Stadium in round two of this year’s Championship that the Leinster back finally lined out in a competitive fixture for his country again.

Primarily deployed on the right wing for his province in recent times, Larmour came off the bench at outside centre against the Azzurri and this initially looked set to be his sole outing in the newest edition of the Six Nations. Yet the late withdrawal of Hugo Keenan through injury suddenly propelled the 26-year-old into the starting line-up at full-back for Ireland’s Championship clincher against Scotland on 16 March in the Aviva.

“Not playing for three years, sometimes you might be second-guessing yourself. ‘Am I good enough, what do I need to do to get better?’ — and stuff like that. Those thoughts do creep into your head, but it’s important to stay as positive as possible,” Larmour acknowledged at a Leinster media briefing on Monday.

“I’ve massive ambitions as a rugby player, I still want to play for Ireland. Obviously I know how hard that is to do, the amount of competition that’s there. The amount of good players we have, it’s something that I wanted to do for a few years now.

“Obviously I came off the bench against Italy, that was good to be back out there. When you get that taste for it, international rugby, you just want to keep playing because it is a bit different.”

While Keenan was officially ruled out of contention in the warm-up to the Scotland game, Larmour revealed his provincial colleague had already been carrying an injury the day before. As a result, he was told to prepare himself for the possibility that he was going to be thrown in at the deep end – having not been included in the original 23 for the fixture.

“I had a quick chat with Faz [Andy Farrell], just around 15. I didn’t know how it was going to go, if Jack [Crowley] was going back there or Lowey [James Lowe], so it was just chatting about that. Just basically saying, ‘Be ready, be across all your work.’ I suppose when you’re 24th, you’re always prepping because you never know what is going to happen,” Larmour explained of his dramatic late call-up.

“I was across most things. I had a few chats with Hugo just to clarify a few things on Friday, because it was still kind of 50/50. Then he went out to do the warm-up and they called it there, so Faz just gave me the thumbs up.

“I didn’t really have time to think about anything, I was just thrown in. It was a massively special day, how the whole weekend panned out. Obviously getting to start for Ireland is something very special. It’s something that I still have massive ambitions to do. It was a great day.”

Although the presence of Keenan, James Lowe and Jimmy O’Brien means he hasn’t always been guaranteed a back-three spot even when he was fit and available in the past couple of seasons, the absence of the latter duo for extended periods has helped Larmour to be a regular fixture for Leinster in the current campaign.

Thus far in 2023/24, the former St Andrew’s College student has started 11 games for the Blues and scored six tries – including four in the pool stages of the European Champions Cup. Leicester Tigers await them in the last-16 of that particular competition on Saturday week, but for now Larmour is embracing the challenge of facing The Bulls in a top-of-the-table United Rugby Championship clash this Friday at the RDS – the same venue where the South African side got the better of Leinster in a URC semi-final in June 2022.

“The body is feeling really good. Obviously it’s a class team to be involved in as well, that helps, but I’ve been really enjoying it this season so far. It’s going to be a massive week this week with the Bulls,” Larmour added.

“I think there is four points between us, first playing second. Obviously what happened two seasons ago, that’s something we are conscious of. We were watching a few clips this morning, to see where we can be better. It’s never nice losing, but losing in the RDS is a no-no.”

Daire Walsh