My Life in Rugby: Tommy Hayes – former Shannon, Plymouth and Exeter lock

For a long time Exeter Chiefs had the tag of being chokers on the big stage, they’d come very close to promotion, lost a few cup finals, and people doubted whether they’d ever make it to the Premiership.
I hadn’t been at the club that long so that tag never affected me but winning promotion in 2010 was without a doubt one of the highlights of my career.
To be captain that night when we won the second leg was just amazing, the whole place went berserk, a little too crazy really as they had to present us the trophy in the changing room because the stewards couldn’t control the celebrations.
Getting promoted was one thing, but I still think that finishing eighth in our first season in the Premiership was as good, if not an even better achievement.
We went up with the mentality that we could live with the top teams, we didn’t want to just contain them, we wanted to attack them and that fearless attitude worked wonders.
It’s a bit strange that my greatest memories came in England but in Ireland I’d reached a point where I needed to move.
It was only through my brother (former Ireland prop John) I ever really got into the game in the first place, John was a late starter and only picked up the game at about 19.
Until then I’d been more involved in hurling and Gaelic football but I was a bit too big and clumsy for those games so the switch certainly helped.
I started out at Bruff and had a fantastic time there, we actually won the U18 Championship in 1997 on a tie with Corinthian.
The move to Shannon was fantastic, such an incredible learning experience. I still have a photo at my Mum’s house of my debut, standing in the back-row alongside seven full Ireland internationals.
The standard was superb and there was no better place to be learning but I was not really making any headway with Munster by the time I got into my early 20s.
There’s no great disgrace. With guys like Donncha O’Callaghan, Alan Quinlan, Anthony Foley, I was always going to be struggling to break into their back five.
But I was working as a quantity surveyor and training in the evenings and I liked the idea of being fully professional.
I had a look at the Championship and Plymouth were the first to offer me a contract, initially for 11 months, that meant I could fully focus on rugby so I jumped at it and I’ve been in England ever since really.
I had some great times at Plymouth, beating Exeter on debut and a huge win over Cornish Pirates one Christmas stick in the memory.
And then moving to Exeter as they were ready to make the leap was amazing. Credit must go to the coaching staff and the set-up off the field that had created a club ready to take the next step.
To be in the Premiership with the Chiefs was a dream come true but eventually my back caught up with me, it had been troubling me for a while and at 33 I had surgery that was not as successful as I’d have liked.
But it was no great tragedy, I’m happy with what I’ve got and, with a third child on the way, I’m in the process of moving back to Ireland to be closer to my family.