'I've always wanted to come over and play in Ireland, and Munster especially'

KIERAN BROOKES IS pinching his nose, the bruises either side inflicted by the shoulder of Leicester’s Joe Heyes in last weekend’s pre-season clash in Limerick.

It’s the first bruiser of Brookes’ Munster career, but far from his first playing pro rugby.

“It’s probably the fifth time I’ve done it,” he explains, while trying to push the pieces back into position.

“It’s gone across, straight, across, straight. I kind of sit there at night and I just try and pop it a little bit.”

Brookes himself is no stranger to moving around, with a career that has taken him to Newcastle, Leicester, Northampton, Wasps, Toulon and Perpignan, while also playing 16 Tests for England. With such a varied CV, he’s laced up in plenty of bucket list venues and on Saturday, he ticks off another, with Munster’s new tighthead preparing to line out in Thomond Park for the first time. (His only previous encounter with Munster was in Toulon in 2024).

As it happens, the Munster move was something he’d thought about over the years.

“I’ve always wanted to come over and play in Ireland and Munster especially, and when the opportunity came up it was something I couldn’t really say no to.

“I’m obviously Irish qualified and I knew Munster were looking for an Irish qualified prop in the off-season, and I worked with Cozzy (Munster General Manager Ian Costello) at Wasps. He was my defence coach and he just gave me a call, said: ‘Look, there’s an opportunity to come over to Munster. First of all, what are your thoughts?’ And I was really keen.”

The Irish roots stretch to Belfast and Dublin. Brookes’ mother, Karen Wade, was born in Belfast, to Dublin and Belfast grandparents.

“They moved over when my mum was about 10 or 11. So I played in Irish age groups and then when I signed my first pro contract over in England, I kind of carried on with the English route.

“I played ‘18 Clubs’, so not many of those boys are still playing. And then I did a pre-season with the 20s and there were lads there like Paddy Butler, Dominic Ryan, the ‘seven’, Niall Annett, those boys, they were all coming through.

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“It wasn’t necessarily like a full-blown switch, like a decision, playing for England – (as in) I want to play for England, I don’t want to play for Ireland. It was just the opportunity came up to play for the (England) 20s and England A, and that natural progression up to the first team. It was with Stuart Lancaster, he was the coach of the Saxons and then he was the one who gave me my opportunity with the first team.”

Brookes sees his varied rugby path as one to be appreciated.

“The opportunity to go and play and explore different places, being a professional rugby player, is great. I played for four clubs in England, my experiences were all great there, and then the opportunity to go over to France and play for Perpignan and Toulon was great.”

His two children, William and Alfred – “very English!” – were born in France, and are now settling into a new school in Limerick.

As dad settles into a new club, his experience is already proving valuable. Forwards coach Jimmy Duffy – who worked with a 17-year-old Brookes with the Ireland clubs – has described Munster’s new front-rower as “an educator” with some of the province’s young props.

Brookes explains how the scrum culture in France differed to what he knew in England.

“Probably in England it’s very technical. It’s used as a restart to the game but if you do get on top, you can use it as a way to get penalties and field position and territory.

“But in France, it’s kind of just like every scrum is a huge event in the game. You know, the crowd are watching that scrum and celebrate the wins from those scrums as much as they celebrate a try. So it’s like a huge event. So everyone, the whole eight (forwards) and even the backs watching get up for every scrum in the games.”

As for the ‘educators’ who had the greatest influence on his own career, Brookes quickly points to his early days in Newcastle.

The one that just stands out, he wasn’t necessarily the most vocal player I’ve ever played with but Carl Hayman, when I first went to Newcastle. I was only 18, but he just had an unbelievable way of getting his point across.

“Obviously, he’s very experienced and a very, very good player, but there was kind of a group of senior players there. There was Micky Ward who’s still there, their scrum coach there. There was Bobby Vickers who’s an ex-hooker, played a bit of loosehead as well. And Carl Hayman.”

He remembers Clermont and Bordeaux as two of the most hostile away venues in France, and the rapturous reception he found playing in front of home crowds.

“The two places I was at, Toulon and Perpignan, have just got two sets of very passionate fans. It’s crazy. They’re loud and the tunnels they form before the game, they’re with you, win or lose. You get good travelling support as well. It’s a proper rugby country.

“It’s a hairs stand up kind of feeling as you come off the bus. They’ve all got their own individual songs as well, singing them as you’re going in.

“It’s a brilliant league (Top14); very, very competitive,” he adds.

“There’s just no easy games. You’ve got 14 teams, most with full international, if not full 15s. So, no matter who you come up against, you’re always going to be in for a tough game. The hardest part about it was probably the amount of games, mixed in with the European competition as well. Every week is just tough.”

Munster won’t exactly be a stroll in the park, either. After a challenging 2025/26 for the province, Brookes will aim to add punch to the Munster pack. While he lines out at tighthead on weekends, he’s played at loosehead and hooker previously, and still continues to train in those positions.

He already has an eye on a post-playing life in coaching, and is excited by his early impressions of Munster’s young props.

“There’s huge, huge potential and I think that with good coaching and playing time and finding that correct balance, I think they’ll go on to get capped, easily.”

Brookes’ aim is to win silverware at Munster, and on this latest stop of a colourful rugby life, he feels there’s plenty of road left in the legs.

“I’d say I may have played some of my best rugby in my 30s compared to my 20s.

“I think you mature as a player and as a person, and having that experience in France and going over there and not speaking a language but learning it and adapting to their lifestyle and their culture and playing with players that you’ve never spoken to or played against really much before, it builds you as a player and as a person.

“So probably coming over here, probably a bit more of an educator. I’d really, really like to go into coaching after I finish playing so that’s something I want to work towards.

“But you’ve still got to back yourself, no matter what age you’re at, and that’s obviously why I’m still playing.”