JOHNNY WATTERSONtalks to one of Ireland's top swimmers whose love of rugby began during his schooldays in Bray

DR GARY O’Toole is a former international swimmer, who competed in the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and in the Barcelona Games in 1992. At the 1989 European Swimming Championships he won the silver medal in the 200 metres breaststroke.

“The main sport in my school, Presentation College in Bray was rugby and it was the game I played right through my junior and senior years there. We didn’t win anything but got to the semi-finals in both the Leinster Junior and Senior cups,” he recalled.

“Rugby by its nature is very physical and I needed to protect myself because as I got older I was looking and training towards the Olympic Games. In theory, you could play rugby in winter and swim in the summer but I couldn’t afford to be out of swimming for six weeks with a fractured ankle or wrist. It wasn’t a big choice for me because there were more talented players on the team.

“I remember the day after we were beaten by St Paul’s at Junior Cup level I was flying out to Bonn to a Grand Prix swimming meet and thinking that the disappointment in the changing room was obsessive and just a bit too much. For a Junior Cup match in the third round it should have been shrugged off.

“Some people took it very, very badly. The difference with swimming is that 14 of your colleagues don’t have to have a good game in order to win.

“I was a scrumhalf at first and then I got a little better and was moved to fullback, which is why I have such great respect for Rob Kearney. My brother played Senior Cup at the same time as Victor Costello did in Blackrock and I also met Victor at the summer Olympics in 1992, which is where I became friendly with him. I also played with Reggie Corrigan, who was a year behind me in Pres Bray and he was friendly with Victor.

“I seemed to get to know rugby players without really playing. It was through Victor that I developed an interest in Leinster, which coincided with his golden years there.

“Victor would say that I couldn’t appreciate frontrow play at all and Reggie would say that the most important player on the pitch is the tight head prop and the second most important player is the replacement tight head prop.

“Then when I went to Waterford for a year of orthopaedic training I shared a house with Niall Hogan, who captained the Irish team nine times. Living with him I just met more players.

“That was nice and he was completely unknown down there. I kept telling him that if he’d made double figures in Irish caps he’d have been better recognised!

“My year with the Leinster Schools’ team came through Ozzie Fogarty, who was the long -standing doctor with the side. He’s a St Mary’s man and in 2003 he became president of the club.

“He told me that as his registrar I would be the schools’ doctor because he was too busy with social events in the club that year. And so I became the school doctor. I loved it, absolutely loved it, seeing that much talent.

“Devin Toner, Johnny Sexton, Rob Kearney were the outstanding talents then. I’m lucky to have been able to follow them through. I’d say now that I’m a committed Leinster fan, a season ticket holder.

“I also spent a year in Australia some time ago and I saw Chris Whittaker and Rocky Elsom playing in the final for Waratahs. When I got back both players then ended up in Leinster so I was able to say that I was one of the few to have seen both of them play in Australia. The Elsom I saw this year with Leinster was 20 per cent better than the Elsom I saw with Waratahs.

“The Heineken Cup final this year in Murrayfield was the most tense and exciting match I’d watched Leinster play. But the best I’ve seen them I think was in the preliminaries against Wasps.

“I think they’ve matured into a team who now do what they need to do. They all front up and say ‘no we will not be beaten’.

“Sorcha, my wife, also watches Leinster. Four years ago I dragged her around New Zealand in the middle of winter in a camper van watching the Lions. So I guess she’s a committed fan too. We’ve two girls which I’m sure she’s happy about because they probably won’t be going into it (rugby).”