Summary
BERNARD JACKMAN is like a good wine, he has improved and matured over time and the bald-headed 31-year-old is now ready to take his place in the Irish starting XV in Paris, a mere 10 years after being first introduced to the international stage. Jackman was one of four players on the pitch last weekend who came up through the rugby nursery of Newbridge College, but his journey since then has been long and winding, taking him to various clubs and countries.
I first spotted Jackman as a young flame-haired tearaway flanker for Lansdowne second XV, and even at that stage I recognised a special talent, an intelligent player who would run through a brick wall. Of course Jackman wasnt the well muscled player he is now, he was more a rangy type of player considered too tall to ever play in the front row. When he was coaxed over the Liffey to Clontarf, a club that was languishing in the depths of the AIL third division, it was hardly the ideal launching pad for a professional and international rugby career, after all in their 100-year history the ambitious northside club had only produced a couple of internationals, and at that stage Jackman probably didnt even think he would increase that poor return.See the full content of this document
Extract
Flame Hair May Have Gone but a Fire Burns in Jacko
As coach of Clontarf I built a formidable forward pack around the ball-carrying skills of Jackman, and we quickly climbed the AIL chain. Today Clontarf are Leinsters m...
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