You would have to be willfully blind not to see the potential in Thomas Ahern from when he first entered the Munster Academy even up until very recently.
What’s not to like? He’s 6’9″, with the pace and acceleration of a back three player and a wingspan like an NBA power forward – he was, and is, something of a unicorn in the modern game. I mean, it really says something that in the land of giants and freak athletes that is modern rugby, Ahern still stands out.
The only issue was that, since he moved onto a senior deal out of the academy, he just couldn’t stay fit for sustained periods. During the early days of his first senior deal, Ahern struggled to put together back-to-back sessions in training and that was reflected in his usage on-field. He’d be in for one week, and out for two but that’s to be expected with a 6’9″ athlete with Ahern’s explosivity, agility and length in a collision sport.
It’s not very scientific but whenever I’ve seen “longer” athletes with Ahern’s wingspan and leg reach, I’ve seen a tonne of knocks and mid-range injuries early in their career as they settle into their frame and that goes double for relatively late converts to the pack. All of these apply to Ahern, who was a fullback/winger up to the age of 17.
The longest stretch of back-to-back games Ahern put together before this season was in 2021/22 when he featured in eight consecutive games, albeit with only two starts in the second row and six as a second-row replacement for a total of 276 minutes.
2022/23 ended up being a washout for Ahern after a nasty dislocated shoulder suffered against Leinster in October kept him out for the entire season. We’d seen this before at Munster, of course. How many talented young forwards have we seen show promise only for a succession of knocks, niggles and injuries to turn them into half the player they could have been? Ian Nagle? Dave Foley? Shane Buckley? Dave O’Callaghan? Even Donnacha Ryan for most of the early 2010s.
There’s a weight of history here that Ahern would have to buck, whether he was aware of that history or not.
Ahern signed a new two-year contract during last season, however, and came into this season with a fresh slate, a surgically repaired shoulder and something to prove.
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Tom Ahern has played every single game for Munster so far this season but, for the opening five rounds of the season, it looked like what had come before. Four bench appearances, one start. He was playing well in those appearances, for sure, but it felt a little like the previous seasons where he was being minded. Maybe that’s my read superimposed on circumstances I don’t know about but when our second row was already depleted because of the World Cup, it felt like what had come before.
But then Peter O’Mahony got injured against the Stormers and, well, things took off from there by asking a pretty radical question.
What if Tom Ahern was a flanker?
I distinctly remember someone in the TRK Secret Club asking last year if Thomas Ahern could operate as a half-lock in the back row. I’d love to say that I saw the potential for it there and then but… no. I, for some reason, thought he was “too tall” for it. I think I was blinded by the answers that Ahern posed in the second row. That’s where he was supposed to be, right? He was going to be our homegrown answer to RG Snyman so moving him into the back row would be a spanner in that imaginary future I’d created for him in my head.
But the qualities that made him a perfect fit for the Munster #6 jersey were there the entire time.
When we think about what Ahern is really good at – what made him stand out in the first place ahead of other 6’7″+ second rows – it was his pace and acceleration in the wide channels.
Remember this from his u20 year?
So he’s a 6’9″ skyscraper who can scorch outside backs on the outside from long range. He’s an outstanding primary lineout jumper and a nightmare to throw over because of his wingspan and explosivity. Munster’s #6 role has those two qualities as the top billing.
One of his weakest traits has always been his scrummaging but put him on the flank behind a prop as a secondary pusher and all of a sudden it doesn’t matter anymore.
In my first Young Bucks article on him, I wrote the following;
It seems like a natural thing to compare him to Leinster’s James Ryan given they play in the same position and the natural need to find a Leinster/Munster dichotomy but I feel that they are two very different players when it comes to their work on attack during phase play and on the set-piece.
Ryan is very much a heavy carrier with strong attacking ruck fundamentals but Ahern reminds me more of Brodie Retallick in both their size and build profile and their skill set with the ball in hand.
That isn’t to say that Thomas Ahern is a sure-fire bet to be World Player of the Year or anything like that but when I see Ahern’s comfort with the ball in space, his length, his wingspan, his athleticism, I see a guy closer to Brodie Retaillick than, say, a Paul O’Connell or a Donncha O’Callaghan.
When you look at the way Munster’s attacking system has developed in the last 18 months, a few obvious patterns have emerged. Ahern missed all of last season’s resurgence post-Pairc Ui Chaoimh so we didn’t see where he would fit.
As the more athletic second row of whatever pair he’d be in – starting or off the bench – so he’d likely take up a spot in the pod of three outside #10 primarily, most likely as the apex carrier. It’s not that he can’t fill that role or a tighter role closer to the ruck, and you can look at his cameo off the bench against Benetton earlier this season as an example of that.
But there’s also no denying that both Munster locks and #8 are primarily used to win collisions in the middle of the field and force compressions for others to exploit. That is a physically demanding role that demands, in my opinion, a heavier, tighter frame to make it work. Why was Edwin Edogbo such a core part of this Munster side before injury? Because he fit the role of that heavy carrier perfectly. Why was Gavin Coombes such a seamless transition into the second row during phase play? Because he was essentially playing the same role as he does at #8, just with a heavier scrummaging load.
Is it any surprise that Ahern has played six starts in a row for the first time in his career – a full 80 minutes in all but one game – when he’s been moved to the edges of the field in the #6 role?
As a stretch half-lock, Ahern can use his freakish speed and acceleration to force wide compressions and act as a 6’9″ ball magnet.
He’s not as complete an edge forward as Peter O’Mahony – few players are – but he’s faster, stronger and more dominant in the carry in those spaces. His breakdown work needs work, as does his defensive tracking, but when you combine his lineout ability with his freakish edge running, there’s potentially a very special player here in this new role.
