KEITH WOODS INTERVIEW: Gerry Thornley talks to Keith Wood about his future and about winning his 51st cap on Saturday at Thomond Park
The World Cup finals 14 months hence, always presuming Ireland actually qualify of course, is an end itself. And for the Irish captain Keith Wood, it could well signal the end of his playing career. Always one who seemed destined to go out on an appropriately high note, it seems a natural finishing point.
Now 31, Wood has been treating the question of his future beyond the World Cup this week with a rhetorical and enigmatic "-That's the one euro question, isn't it?"
But he also reiterated his plans, which he had outlined here in an interview during last summer's tour to New Zealand, that he would see out the last year of his contract with Harlequins this season before returning to Ireland in readiness for the finals in Australia next October.
Not that this would mean he would resume playing with Munster necessarily. The proposed training camps, and theoretical Tests against Canada, Scotland and Wales in August, plus some form of warm-up games, might constitute sufficient preparation in themselves. When not on official Irish duty, and based in Killaloe, it would only be natural he should train with his erstwhile Munster team-mates 10 miles up the road.
Beyond the World Cup?
"The situation is that I'll look at it around that time as to what I'm going to do. I don't feel there's a huge need to make a decision at this stage. I want to do everything I possibly can towards getting right for the World Cup, then I'll take a view at that time."
It is not inconceivable that Wood has already decided in his own mind that the World Cup is a natural finishing point, but rather than have Ireland's preparation and focus in any way sidetracked by his personal position, would keep his views private. Then again, he has oscillated between weariness of the game and thoughts of impending retirement, post-Lions, to a recent rejuvenation under Eddie O'Sullivan's stewardship, in which the Irish captain has been afforded even more responsibility.
In any event, his priorities are changing and he has begun to see a more defined future after his playing career. Not only is his own PR company, Touch Wood, up and running, but he and his wife Nicola are expecting their first child any day now. Indeed, the birth is already overdue, and it could be that he will be required to make a fleeting visit back to London before Saturday's Test against Romania.
That Test will constitute his 51st in an Irish jersey, and he will also be extending his record as Irish captain to 29. That he should be leading Ireland out at Thomond Park will have a certain poignancy for him, as somehow all roads seem to bring him back here.
"Of course it's not a regular occurrence. Ireland haven't played an international here for over 100 years," he points out with a characteristic grasp of historical significance, "and I think if we are to continue playing so many internationals during the season it's a nice situation to have some of them outside Dublin."
Funnily enough, it's not a ground he's played an awful lot of rugby in.
"I haven't played at Thomond Park since I played for Munster four years ago. I haven't played a huge amount in Thomond Park but some of the bigger games I've played have been there.
"We had a big game for Garryowen against Shannon 10 or 11 years ago. We won the All-Ireland league that year, which was the first year we won it, and that was great. People were hanging out of the place it was so full. I was 20 at the time. It was my birthday actually."
To celebrate the occasion, Garryowen won and Wood scored a try. Naturally. Who writes his scripts? Fittingly, too, he had made his competitive senior debut there a year beforehand, in a Munster Senior Cup tie against Sunday's Well, a game which Garryowen also won.
Somehow you sense there would have been something missing from his memoirs if Wood hadn't made a one-off return home to Munster in the year of the last World Cup, when Munster took a memorable journey to that cursed Twickenham final against Northampton.
"There were some really good games that year, yeah," he agrees, smiling at the memories, "and very enjoyable."
No one who was there when Munster eked out a thrilling 31-30 win over Saracens will ever forget the throbbing bearpit which Thomond Park became that day, and especially the climax of Ronan O'Gara's match-winning conversion via an upright following Wood's tumultuous, heart-on-sleeve, burrowing try - albeit from a pick up about two yards out after the initial lineout maul had been held up just short.
"I love it because it is one of the strangest places to play. It often freaks people out because it's all-terracing, which means the noise is brilliant. The silence for the kickers freaks everybody out. Especially in modern sport that's become increasingly unusual. It's a really good place to play."
To mark the day that's in it this Saturday, he says Ireland are looking to play well, and win well.
"Whatever that second 'well' is I don't know. For the first 'well' we need to play properly and we are going to be a little bit rusty obviously, so it's to try to hit the ground running."
Three commanding wins, starting on Saturday and continuing with the World Cup qualifiers away to Russia and at home to Georgia are the requirements of this first leg of a long odyssey.
"I think we've moved on and we need to be used to the idea that we have to play well, play hard and win well. And if that's the wrong way to look at it from an Irish perspective then we're only fooling ourselves."
The road to an end in itself starts here then.
