HOME AND AWAY/CONOR O'SHEA:CONOR O'SHEA'S last official contact with the IRFU, as an employee anyway, was one of the darker days in this island's long rugby history.
After the Lens debacle, when Argentina knocked Ireland out of the 1999 World Cup, the Warren Gatland-coached team soldiered into the Six Nations on the lowest of ebbs. First up was an fine England side under O’Shea’s former London Irish coach Clive Woodward.
The final scoreline read 50-18 and proved the international curtain call for many, including O’Shea and, until recently, Bob Casey. Ireland made a dramatic turnaround two weeks later, hammering Scotland 44-22 with Gatland’s dramatic investment in new players – Girvan Dempsey taking over O’Shea’s fullback slot – reaping immediate rewards. That was the beginning for people like Ronan O’Gara, Peter Stringer, John Hayes and Shane Horgan.
Injury ended O’Shea’s career that November after an horrific dislocated ankle, broken tibia and fibia, hardly aided by ruptured ankle and knee ligaments. After four operations he eventually called it a day, aged 30.
London Irish immediately recognised his off-field potential, making him director of rugby and then their managing director (2003-05) before the English RFU offered him a significant role in their national academy.
Clearly a marked man, early last year the English Institute of Sport came calling in search of a national director. As the former Terenure schoolboy (of Kerry extraction – father Jerome climbed the Hogan Stand steps in Croke Park three times in the 1950s) says himself, it was too great an opportunity to turn down, what with the Olympics coming to London in 2012.
O’Shea remains familiar to those still loyal to RTÉ’s rugby coverage, providing much-needed equilibrium and consistency to the chaotic cartoon triumvirate of Tom McGurk, George Hook and Brent Pope that grumble from the studio before home internationals (alas, RTÉ was muscled out of the live European Cup market).
Unfortunately, despite 35 caps, his international experiences never delivered upon some magnificent club form for London Irish that yielded 62 tries in 125 appearances. The Woodward ideology ensured the number 15 was a strike runner. The Irish way, mid- to-late ’90s, meant the lad at the back did a fair amount of catching, kicking and, of course, tackling.
He joined Irish in 1995, a year before the flight of so many from Irish shores to collect the then profitable sterling pound.
“It was my studies that brought me over initially. I had met someone at a careers conference out in the RDS who had done this course (MA Sports Science). I was really interested in getting into sports science and the management side of sport.
“That’s what drew me over. Clive got in touch with me when he heard I was coming over and asked if I wanted to play for London Irish. I said ‘absolutely’.
“And we did play the game as it should be played. I loved playing with the width London Irish have always played with. It is their tradition.
“A year later, after we got promoted, there was a back line of David Humphreys, Rob Henderson, Justin Bishop, Niall Woods, myself. You had Jeremy Davidson, Gabriel Fulcher, Victor Costello, Ken O’Connell so we had some really good times together right at the start of professionalism.”
After laying the foundations for his current career with the EIS, O’Shea, unsurprisingly, doesn’t retain any regrets about what might have been.
“I couldn’t have put more into my career. Could I have got more out of it? Yes, but you can’t write your own postscript. Still, I can be happy with my playing career. I met and still have some incredible friends and we shared a lot, good times and bad.
“The good times weren’t as plentiful as they are today but we’ll always have Twickenham in 1994. That was my third cap and I thought life was easy.
“There are good memories from the World Cups; bitter-sweet obviously but all this helped shape what happens. You learn a lot from everything.”
He is a strong advocate of ensuring today’s professionals lay foundations for life after rugby, and why wouldn’t he be? O’Shea is living proof of how to hit the ground running if and when a sporting life grinds to an unexpected halt.
“The corporate opportunity for players is there. Sometimes you hear players complain about post-match duties but what a chance they have to meet leaders of business. These are leaders of their respective fields and they would be in awe of these young men. It is a great opportunity.”
O’Shea would be an ideal man to help guide Irish rugby in the current climate but that opportunity has not arisen. Fate dictates a different course for now. Not that he is a true exile.
“I come back practically every weekend, be it for work with RTÉ or whatever. My home is Ireland. I spend most of my summers in Kerry. I get to see my family when I’m back doing the rugby. I love it. In the 1950s you got on a boat and never came back.
“Now I’m probably nearer my home in Dublin than if I lived in Cork. I’ve got my Irish Times beside me, that I can get every day. I never feel I’m away. Just a little bit further than most people.
“I love what I do and I’m very committed to it. I like the balance I have at the moment.
“Everyone knows how passionate I am about my rugby. I will stay committed to what I’m doing. I really enjoy the challenge. I’m looking forward to being a part of the 2012 Olympics, from a British and Irish point of view.
“The magnitude of the Olympics, having gone out to Beijing, it is the biggest sporting event in the world. To have it on in London, on Ireland’s door-step is a phenomenal opportunity.”
