Club comes first for exiled Tom Court  

Tom Court has revealed why joining London Irish means his Ireland career is over.
But the 32-times capped loose-head prop believes missing next year’s World Cup is a small price to pay for being part of an Exiles revolution that aims to take the Premiership by storm.
Court, 33, told The Rugby Paper: “As soon as I made the decision to move over here it pretty much spelt the end of my international career.
“Last November, when I was in camp with the Irish team, I got a heads-up from a reporter that they’d got news I was going to sign with London Irish.
“I let head coach Joe Schmidt know and he pretty much said there and then that if I was moving away he’d be looking at other options and younger guys.
“They’ve got good options in Ireland and young guys pushing hard so they’ve not going to miss me too much, but from my view it was disappointing.
“But being here means I can concentrate on my club rugby and the fact I can also focus on my family is going to be compensation enough for all that.”
Court achieved big things during his eight years with Ulster, helping the Irish province become regular Celtic League contenders and reach the 2012 Heineken Cup final, as well as pushing into the Ireland team and becoming a 2013 Lions tourist.
He could have stayed in Belfast but the challenge of leading London Irish into a new era under director of rugby Brian Smith proved too attractive.
Court explained: “I was always going to give Ulster the option because I’d been there so long, but the more I talked to Brian Smith and forwards coach Glenn Delaney, coming to London Irish was too good an opportunity to refuse.
“It’s a three-year deal so you can really settle down and concentrate on what you’re doing, but it was also something to freshen me up because I felt I was maybe getting a bit stale at Ulster.
“Being here as one of the more senior players age-wise, it’s nice to be able to buy into it fully, really give something back and help out not only the younger players but the entire team and try to push on and achieve the same goal.
“That was a big driver for me coming here and when (rugby manager) Bob Casey and Smithy explained what they were trying to build at Irish, it’s not just about putting a team together to do okay, it’s about building an institution.”
With Scotland prop Geoff Cross also on board and Tongan powerhouse Halani Aulika fit again after injury, Irish are putting together a seriously stacked front row.
And with the experienced quartet of Tom Guest, Luke Narraway, Dan Leo and Sean Cox arriving to add power to their back five as well, Irish could be one of the surprise packets when the new season gets underway next month.
“Irish have been trying to rebuild their front row and Glenn Delaney’s been off with the All Blacks this summer, chatting to their scrum coach Mike Cron and looking at ways to make us improve,” Court said.
“It’s come on so far already and everyone’s buying into what we’re trying to build here, especially through the front row. We’ve got guys who are working hard and being selfless, there haven’t been any boys who’ve been shirking.
“We’ve only been together five or six weeks but there’s enormous energy and enthusiasm around the place and I’ve never seen anything like it. Everything about the new training facilities is impressive and the place is buzzing right now.”
The Premiership holds no terrors for Court, who sought the advice of Ulster colleague and former Northampton No.8 Roger Wilson before moving.
He added: “Roger and I are good friends and he told me the Premiership was more attritional, but over the last four or five years I’ve been playing 25-30 games a season which should have prepared me quite well for what’s ahead.
“It’s a much more taxing and harder fought league across the board, but I’ll get my head down, work hard and I’m really looking forward to it.”
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