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Matt Tierney has signed a 3-year contract extension with Top 14 club Pau. The Canadian prop has spent the past four seasons in France, signing a one year deal ahead of the 2015-16 season and adding a further three years in April 2016. His new extension will run though the end of the 2021-22 season.
A native of Mississauga, Ontario, Tierney made his Top 14 debut in May 2016, two months before his 20th birthday. Now 23, he has 17 senior appearances for the club including 10 in the European Challenge Cup. Only two have been starts, however, and the club will now be expecting Tierney to make a step up after their long-term investment.
Injuries, international commitments, and the presence of three other senior tightheads have limited his Top 14 opportunities over the past two seasons. South African international Lourens Adriaanse and the enormous Malik Hamadache have split the vast majority of senior matches with young French prospect Nicolas Corato also on the books.
This past season has seen Tierney play five senior matches to date, coming on as a replacement against Lyon this past weekend. He had started the previous two matches for the Espoirs, Pau’s senior academy team, where he played alongside another young Canadian international, Matt Beukeboom.
Tierney’s international career has been more fruitful in terms of game time with 17 test caps and 10 starts now under his belt. He started two of the three World Cup Repechage matches in November and more recently the Americas Rugby Championship tests against Uruguay and Brazil.
