“France is the stronghold of rugby and it’ll be good to play over there”

Gavin Thornbury’s career trajectory was very much on an upward curve earlier this Summer.

The Dublin-born lock forward, with strong Galway roots, had caught the eye of Ireland head coach, Joe Schmidt, while donning the green jersey of Connacht and earned a call-up to Summer international training camp.

“Obviously, it was a massive honour,” he says of being drafted into the Ireland senior squad for the first time.

It was “a massive learning experience”, says Thornbury; and by all accounts, the 25-years-old was in line to for inclusion in the November test series’ squad, with the possibility of a first international cap. Then, disaster struck.

Thornbury damaged his shoulder against Scarlets in the Sportsground in late September, which side-lined him for the crucial eight weeks’ window around the Autumn internationals. “I don’t think there’s any good time to get injured but, yeah, it was pretty devastating,” he admits.

“Thankfully, I deal with superb physios and strength and conditioning staff, and they got me back as quick as possible and I’m feeling really good now and hopefully the injuries are behind me for the rest of the season.”

Thornbury hasn’t heard from Schmidt since camp but confirms he’s “delighted to be back playing” after the lengthy injury lay-off, and is firmly focusing on re-establishing the form with Connacht that got him noticed by the New Zealander in the first place.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and  county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.