Times
Tommy Bowe grateful to Australians for getting him back on the wing ..........................GT
‘I was pretty much told it was curtains when I hurt my hand’.
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/i ... 650?page=2One of the most significant advancements within the vast Lions machine has been their ever-expanding and ever-improving medical and fitness back-up. Nothing illustrates the point more than Tommy Bowe’s recovery from a broken hand three weeks ago, although it wouldn’t have been possible without support from Australian medics either. Maybe the Aussies are going soft.
When it was feared he had suffered a fracture at Suncorp Stadium three Saturdays ago against the Reds, Bowe’s ensuing scan was facilitated by Ben Kelley opening his X-Radiology Clinic in Brisbane about 3k from the stadium.
After it confirmed the worst, Kelley refused any payment, but within an hour he had received a Lions’ jersey autographed by the entire squad and an autographed Lions rugby ball. By then though, Bowe was so sure his tour had been ended prematurely that he texted his girlfriend and parents, who were in Brisbane, with two words. “Game over.”
Whereupon the Brisbane-based surgeon Dr Peter Rowan, who had operated on Reds and rugby league players with similar injuries, entered the fray when contacted by the Irish team doctor Dr Eanna Halvey, who is part of the Lions’ medical entourage.
“I was pretty much told it was curtains when I hurt my hand,” recalled Bowe yesterday. “On the side of the pitch the doctor just said ‘I’m sorry’. I went for the X-rays and they all showed a fracture, a spiral fracture down through the metacarpal.”
Bowe was even more resigned to his fate until Falvey had the idea of calling Rowan at 11.45pm that night at Kelley’s clinic. “He was the one who said, ‘I’ve had rugby league guys coming back within three weeks, max’, so that was the shining light, the opportunity that there might be a chance to stay on.
“From all the people in the hospital at the time, everybody, a broken bone in the hand, meant six to eight weeks in a cast and that’s curtains. But Dr Rowan just mentioned it to Eanna, that he has had players coming back. It might be sore, you might have to dig in a bit but it’s possible.”
Operation
Bowe’s sense of debt to Rowan is incalculable. “In fairness to Dr Rowan, I think he normally sails or does something on a Sunday morning but he came in first thing to come and do the operation. So I owe a huge amount to him.”
Pretty much from the moment the operation was completed Bowe believed he could realistically target this Test, which ensured he and those close to him experienced a whirlwind of emotions. “My family are all over here and I just texted them all to say ‘game over’. I thought that was it. Then all of a sudden, when I got that bit of information at quarter to 12 at night, I was back in the hotel and it was a range of emotion; to go from the lows, thinking your tour is over so early into it to think that you have a chance. I didn’t know whether I’d be back in time for the Test matches but there was always that opportunity and to get picked in it now is an even higher emotion.”
In actual fact, Bowe confirmed yesterday that rumours of him straining to play last week were true, the flexibility in his hand having begun to return, but he was advised to give it another week. Bowe now has a full range of movement in his right hand, although will play with a protective hurling glove.
“Andrew Trimble fractured his hand a couple of years ago and had a hurling glove and played a couple of games in it for Ireland, so we got in touch with the same guys and they shifted it straight out to us from Ireland.”
Bowe’s selection ahead of Alex Cuthbert is testimony to his all-round qualities and the high value placed upon him by the coaching staff. He overcame knee surgery in December to make it back as a replacement in Ulster’s Heineken Cup quarter-final defeat to Saracens at Twickenham, but with his form of four years ago in the bank, did enough that day and in a couple of Pro12 games to earn his selection in the squad.
With his heads-up brand of rugby, Bowe had looked in prime form, and to miss out on the Test series would have been too cruel, but if he can hit the ground running after four months, three weeks oughtn’t to be much bother to him.
“It is an enormous game and certainly after the performance last weekend it’s tough watching it and it’s going to be difficult after two weeks out, but I felt good how I played in the previous matches. I’ve come back from a bad injury already earlier on the season. I think I was able to raise my game straight back up to the level I want to play at. I’ve trained with the boys the last week or so and I think that I’m definitely up to it.”
Missed out
Citing the players who have missed out, Bowe believes this team, or squad, is better than four years ago. “I think we have as good a team, as good a squad here, as you could get.”
He is both mindful of history repeating itself, but also creating history. “It’s 16 years since it’s been won. Everything felt in 2009, off the pitch and on the pitch, everything felt as if it was lined up for us to win that series. It was probably one of my biggest regrets and you chat to anyone involved in that tour, the disappointment of missing out on that.
“To go 2-0 down was just heartbreaking. We know the history behind it, we know what a great opportunity it is to get picked for the Lions, but if a Lions team can’t win and if we were to go another couple of years, it would seem ‘What’s going to happen with the Lions?’ This is a great opportunity for us. We know the history, we know how difficult it is to come down to the Southern Hemisphere and get a win.”
Summing up, he said: “We know it’s been such a long time and we feel that this could be our time.” No fears about Tommy Bowe being ready next Saturday. After a couple of unbearable weeks watching, he was ready yesterday.
LondonEveStandard
Tommy Bowe 'amazed' by quick return .........................
http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/rugby/l ... 75910.htmlLess than three weeks after staring at an X-ray showing a break in his right hand, Tommy Bowe will attempt to help the Lions clinch their first series win in 16 years on Saturday.
After Bowe was injured in the win against Queensland Reds, the Ireland wing texted his parents and brother from the Brisbane hospital to tell them his tour was over and that their journey to Australia to support him would have an unhappy ending.
But thanks to a surgeon coming into the hospital on his Sunday off — he would have been sailing — to repair a spiral fracture, Bowe’s family will be here at the Etihad Stadium to see him play in the crunch Second Test against the Wallabies.
Prior to the operation, the surgeon told Bowe he had got a rugby league player back into the sport after three weeks from a similar break. Bowe, 29, has enjoyed an incredible recovery, having spent the first week keeping his right hand elevated while taking calcium and other vitamin tablets plus protein shakes to bolster the healing process.
“It has been an emotional rollercoaster ride,” said Bowe. “These are the games you want to play in and getting injured is the hardest part of professional sport.
“It is amazing I am sitting here two-and-a-half weeks after breaking a bone in my hand and getting ready to play in the Second Test. I have done everything I can to get fit and that has meant taking protein shakes, calcium and omega tablets with physiotherapy up to four times a day and constant icing. It has been a pretty frantic regime over the last few weeks.
“To be told that I had an injury that would mean being out for six to eight weeks and to be back two-and-a-half weeks after surgery with full grip in my hand is great and I am good to go.
“I am not a very good spectator and the First Test had my blood pressure up, so being back in the team means I am a lot happier. I have managed one-and-a-half games on tour, which is not ideal, but coming back from a bad knee injury earlier in the season to be selected for this tour gives me the confidence that I can get up to speed really quickly. I have done ball skills and everything — I haven’t dropped anything.”
Bowe will wear a special padded glove that has been flown out to Australia and was recommended by his Ulster team-mate Andrew Trimble, who had a similar injury.
Bowe, a key member of the 2009 Lions Test side in South Africa, has replaced try scorer Alex Cuthbert from the First Test victory and he is eager to repay the faith shown in him by head coach Warren Gatland, who has made five changes for the Melbourne Test.
“Alex scored a great try in the First Test and that puts a huge amount of pressure on me as I have taken over on the wing from him,” he said. “It will push me to play what I believe will have to be the best game of my career. The Wallabies showed they are prepared to run the ball at us and watching from the sidelines gives you a different view of the opposition.”
The Lions tour to South Africa remains a major motivating factor for Bowe and those players who battled so hard against the Springboks only to lose the series 2-1. Now Bowe wants to help the Lions win a series for the first time since 1997. He said: “The disappointment after losing the Second Test with the Lions in South Africa in 2009 was one of the low points of my career.
“To be in the situation here we can win the series by going 2-0 up against the Wallabies is fantastic. I have put my parents and brother — who is travelling around Australia in a camper van — through agony on this tour and so it’s great to be playing again.”