A product of the Penzance & Newlyn RFC’s youth section, Tom initially developed his rugby through the club and at Mounts Bay School, as did his younger brother Luke.

As a mobile and powerful front-rower, Tom impressed at various age group levels for Cornwall and the SW, whilst an early highlight was in 2009 when he scored a try for Truro College in their impressive 39-18 win against St. Peter’s (Gloucester) in the final of the prestigious Daily Mail RBS Cup competition, played at Twickenham.

In 2009-10, when a member of the Exeter Chiefs England Rugby Academy, Tom had a loan spell playing for Redruth in National One. It provided him with worthy senior experience ahead of him first joining the Cornish Pirates in 2010, where in two seasons he made 21 appearances.

Continuing his development, prior to his return to the Cornish Pirates in 2017, Tom had gained further experience again at Redruth and at Plymouth Albion, whilst he had also played for England Counties and was proudly a member of Cornwall’s 2016 County Championship winning side.

Because of injury, the 2017/18 season proved a little frustrating for Tom, however when fit he was a stand-out performer who took his games tally for the club to 38.