“You have every hour of your day structured and pointed toward a goal, and then it’s gone. I found that tough to be honest.”
He is now teaching business and accounts, as well as P.E. classes, in the school, and has found his true calling and his club. “To be brutally honest, I fell out of love with rugby for a little while, but I eat, sleep and breath it. I wasn’t going to throw my toys out of the pram and give it up for good. I’d be lying if I said I still didn’t harbour dreams of playing professionally at some level but I’m enjoying my rugby so much with Terenure I’m delighted I didn’t give it up.”
He played some underage rugby in Queensland – “I’m a dry track pony,” – and describes his brother as “a silky outhalf and fullback” who struggled to adapt from those Queensland pitches and running it from everywhere to muddy Coonagh and being told to kick the leather off the ball. Alas, he was prevented from playing Senior Cup rugby for Roscrea by the rule whereby a player had to be in his second year with a school to be eligible.