Tommy Bowe on the ‘adrenaline rush’ of Ireland AM and the fear of being cancelled

Tommy Bowe spoke on the “adrenaline rush” he experiences while being on Ireland AM

He explained that it’s not the same buzz he got from playing rugby, but he still loves doing it.

The TV presenter opened up about being in the “second chapter” of his life and how it felt to accomplish his dreams in his late 20s and early 30s.

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Tommy joined Christopher Connolly for a 5k for his series Get Better With Chris.

He said: “It's taken a while, but I've been busy. But from my point of view, I'm on to the second chapter, or second half of my career.

“Obviously being a former rugby player, representing Ireland and representing my country was always my dream. It's funny to live out your dream and have it all finished in your late 20s, early 30s.

“You have to try and find something else to do. I'm very lucky. I moved into live television with Ireland AM. It's not quite rolling out on the Aviva anymore.

“You don't get the same buzz, but you have to be careful. You say one wrong thing, you could be well and truly cancelled at seven o'clock in the morning.

“I haven't even had my breakfast, so it's a new adrenaline rush and I really love it.”

The former rugby player explained that he has overcome obstacles in life and learning a new identity after leaving the sport.

“I have had obstacles, of course, like most people. I suppose it's about everybody's individual battles that they go through,” he said.

“From a rugby perspective, I went through some tough times with injury, wondering if your career is over, if you're ever going to be able to get back to the level that you would have been before being dropped.

“Even post-rugby and learning how to find a new identity in yourself. There's always little struggles, little battles going on. Something I think that rugby and sport in particular has really helped me with is building up a resilience.”

After all the lessons he learned from being an athlete, he now wants his children, Emma and Jamie, involved in sports too.

“Even from my own kids' point of view, I really want them to get involved in sport, particularly team sport, because you learn such amazing values.

“Teamwork, learning to win, to lose, win gracefully, to not be a bad loser. And I think there's a huge amount you can learn from that, and that certainly helped me in rugby and in life after rugby.”

He shared what advice he would give to young people, urging people to not give up at whatever they’re doing in life.

Tommy shared: “It's hard to know from a young person trying to get into sport or anything. It's a big message I try to tell my kids, to not give up. It's something that it's so easy nowadays to give up.

“When things are tough, it's very easy to decide to down tools and move on. That's from schoolwork to sport, from life to anything.

“If you’re looking at where you're going to go in the future, you’ve got to try and put yourself in positions that you might be selected, you might be able to find an opportunity.

“When you get that opportunity, you've got to take it. So you work hard, you do your prep, and when you get that chance, you knock it out of the park.”

As we head into the final part of the year, the Monaghan native explained that it’s his busiest time of the year.

“Christmas - it's always the busiest time of the year for me.,” he said. “Obviously, I'm on Ireland AM at the minute, but I'm also with the clothes, the shoes.”

He added: “It's important to try and work hard in the build up to it, but I'm looking forward to spending a bit of time with the family at the end of it.”