AT ONE STAGE in their rugby journeys, Robert Baloucoune and Cormac Izuchukwu both thought that they had no future as professionals in the sport.
Today, the Ulster pair will make their Six Nations debuts for Ireland against Italy in Dublin.
Baloucoune took up rugby at the age of 15, having initially been football mad. His late father, Martial, hailed from Senegal and was apparently good enough to be offered a trial with French club Marseille.
Enniskillen native Baloucoune made the switch to rugby when he was at school in Portora Royal School and showed promise thanks to the pace and athleticism that are still big strengths of his today with Ulster and Ireland. He helped Portora to win an Ulster Schools’ Bowl title, starring at fullback.
The flying wing was good enough to get capped by the Ulster U19s before finishing school, but he wasn’t an Ireland underage international and he didn’t go straight onto an academy contract like some of his peers.
Instead, Baloucoune went off to play junior club rugby with Enniskillen RFC.
A shy, quiet character, it took him time to find his feet playing with adults, but the wing was soon scorching in tries. He even scored in the 2017 Ulster Towns Cup final defeat to Ballynahinch. That was a harrowing day for Enniskillen, who agonisingly lost in the last play of extra time when they had been so close to the club’s first title since 1937.
Thankfully, Enniskillen got over the line to win the 2019 Towns Cup, but Baloucoune had taken off with Ulster by then.
The first step to higher honours was joining the Ireland 7s programme and making his international debut in green in 2018.
Baloucoune quickly became part of an Irish set-up that was making big strides, although they had the heartbreak of narrowly failing to qualify for the World 7s Series in Hong Kong, where the Enniskillen man won his first cap.
Baloucoune also played at the 2018 World Cup 7s in the US, by which time he was back in the Ulster system on an academy deal and ready to kick on as a 15s player.
His first season with Ulster, the 2018/19 campaign, went better than expected for the then 21-year-old as he scored six tries in 13 starts for Dan McFarland’s side and learned rapidly, with his defensive reads impressing as much as his sheer speed.
By the summer of 2021, Baloucoune was making a try-scoring senior Ireland debut against the USA, with three more caps in the following seasons, but he still had much to learn.
Nicknamed ‘The Cat’ partly because he is so laid-back that he can nap anywhere, Baloucoune has worked hard to round out his game even though he has suffered badly with injuries in the last few years, including missing the vast majority of last season.
Despite having to deal with hamstring issues, he remains seriously quick, can change direction at high speed, has a nice offloading game, reads the flow of games more intuitively, and has strong aerial skills thanks to his 6ft 3in frame and explosive power.
It has taken a while to get here but Baloucoune will hope that at the age of 28, his Ireland career is about to really take off.
His mother, Shirley, has been a huge support each step of the way, ferrying her son to and from training as a youngster and getting to every single game of his that she could.
Today will be a proud one for her and everyone in Enniskillen.
Baloucoune is still well-connected to his home club, helping out as backs coach, and they’ll be roaring him on.
Izuchukwu has also benefited from the strong support of his mother, Catriona, who hails from Offaly.
Cormac was born in London to a Nigerian father and lived there until he was eight, when Catriona brought him, his brother Chinnie, and his sister Ciara back to Ireland. After a spell in his mum’s hometown of Kilcormac, they settled in Tullamore.
Catriona is related to legendary Offaly hurlers Joe, Johnny and Billy Dooley, so GAA was big for Cormac growing up. He also did athletics and every other sport going, including rugby with Tullamore RFC.
It was when he switched to boarding school in Roscrea College for fourth year that Izuchukwu really started to get obsessed with rugby. Initially a wing, he ended up playing in the centre for Roscrea in the Leinster Schools Senior Cup.
He was offered a Connacht U19s trial at one stage but got injured and missed out on that chance, so Izuchukwu left school without having played representative rugby.
He moved back to Tullamore to work in a bar and play for his home club before a plan was formulated. The 18-year-old Izuchukwu decided he would take off and travel the world, connecting with rugby clubs along the way.
He had New Zealand, Canada and the US in mind, but his adventure started in Scotland with second division amateur club Kelso RFC.
Having shot up to his current 6ft 7in height at this stage, Izuchukwu convinced Kelso he was a second row despite never having played there. He got a part-time job in Sainsbury’s and began excelling with the rugby club.
So good were his performances that Kelso’s Kiwi coach, Gary Stevens, who had once coached James Lowe, said Izuchukwu was too good for that level. He helped to get him a look in at Newcastle Falcons before sending Izuchukwu’s clips to the IRFU.
Ex-performance director David Nucifora gave Izuchukwu a call and only months after arriving in Scotland, the Offaly man was on his way home to sign a contract with the Ireland 7s.
Izuchukwu had to work hard to drop weight and get up to speed with the seven-player code, but his Ireland debut came at the 2019 Paris 7s. It was clear he was a 15s player, though, and he was part of the wider Ireland U20s squad in 2020 without getting a cap.
After the Ospreys expressed interest in him, Ulster presented Izuchukwu with an academy contract, and he hasn’t looked back since.
Despite essentially having to learn how to jump in a lineout from scratch, Izuchukwu was soon making progress with Ulster in the 2020/21 season. His athleticism was eye-catching, but he had to figure out the other nuts and bolts of forward play, as well as build durability.
His Ireland debut came in November 2024 at blindside flanker against Fiji, before a start in the second row against Georgia last summer, with a replacement appearance off the bench against Portugal the following week.
‘Izzy’ missed the November Tests due to injury, but now he’s ready to get up and running in the Six Nations. He turned 26 last month, yet having been a fairly late starter as a forward, it’s no surprise that it has taken a few years for Izuchukwu to get here.
He’s a powerful athlete with collision-winning ability, but Izuchukwu’s diligent work means his defensive lineout work is now a key strength, as is his delightful offloading game. Fiji offload master Leone Nakarawa was one of Izuchukwu’s idols growing up, so Ireland will be hoping for some slick skills in that area.
They’ll be beaming with pride in Tullamore.
