Jack Dunne Gillian Neely, Trinity Sport, chats to Jack about his road to success, both on and off the rugby field J ack Dunne is no ordinary rugby player. He had his choice of any course in Ireland, after maximising his leaving certificate at St Michael’s College. Though already set on his path of professional rugby, he chose a highly demanding academic discipline: Theoretical Physics at Trinity. ‘It is basically physics, with loads and loads of maths,’ he says. ‘When I was choosing what course, I was going to do, I thought about business. In the end, I didn’t find it interesting. I always found physics interesting, spending time on YouTube watching random stuff, like black holes and the likes.’ The mathematical gene was passed on from his Dad Joe, who also studied the subject. Mum Olwyn steered more towards languages. Dunne is also a Gaeilgeoir, ‘my teacher, Ronan Joyce, was incredibly passionate about the language and inspired my love for speaking Irish. I also got involved with the language again through An Cumann Gaelach in Trinity.’ The fine balance between the competing demands of being a professional rugby player with Leinster and a Theoretical Physics student has been struck. ‘I have managed to do all my modules, so far and Trinity have been great for allowing me to spread out my course over extra years so I can balance my studies with training for Leinster.’ Jack who signed his first professional rugby contract with Leinster Rugby at the start of the 2020 / 21 season goes onto explain his love of rugby. ‘It is much more fun than studying the books! I enjoy rugby more so. I love the energy of rugby – the highs that come with it. The lows aren’t great, but they are part of it too.’ Jack is currently coming off the back of a long ankle injury and right now his goal for the season is to get back into training and push for more game time with Leinster Rugby. Dunne spoke openly for the first time about being bisexual during Leinster Rugby’s Pride panel. The second row made it clear that his sexuality is no secret to his teammates, and that he was not “coming out”, but rather speaking openly about it for the first time. ‘I kind of realised when I was maybe fifteen or sixteen but you’re in a school full of teenage boys. I think a lot of them were saying things that they weren’t even thinking about I think there’s huge growth going on, – if they actually stopped and had a thought about what they’d said, they’d probably think “I shouldn’t be saying that.” They’re probably but there’s definitely some way to go
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