My Life in Rugby with Paul Burke: ‘As a whole, I feel very blessed with my career’
BRISTOL - MARCH 13: Paul Burke of Harlequins in action during the Zurich Premiership match between Bristol and Harlequins at Bristol on March 13th 2002. (Photo by Frank Coppi/Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)
The former Ireland, London Irish, Bristol, Cardiff, Harlequins, Munster and Leicester fly-half talks about his life in the game
I WAS born in London and came up through the English system, playing age-grade rugby with people like played Kyran Bracken, Matt Dawson, Will Greenwood and Lawrence Dallaglio – all that vintage, but I declared for Ireland when I was 21. Both my parents are Irish and my whole family is Irish, so it's in my blood, and I grew up watching people like Tony Ward and Ollie Campbell.
London Irish was my club from the age of eight – I was part of the first mini and junior section – and continued playing for them whilst I was at Loughborough University, commuting back and forth from the Midlands three times a week. The late Tom Kiernan set up the Irish Exiles and it was when he came over and met with me and asked me to play for the Ireland U21s, that I made the switch. Ironically, my first game was against England, at Gateshead International Stadium. It was a curtain-raiser for England A vs New Zealand A.
After university, I got a teaching job over in Ireland and played for Cork Con and Munster and it wasn't long before I was selected for my first cap which, believe it or not, was also against England at Lansdowne Road. It was a fantastic day even though we nearly got blown off the pitch, it was so windy. Talking to Rob Andrew afterwards, he said he had never played international rugby in conditions like that ever before. We lost 20 points to eight.
We didn't have a particularly good Five Nations, but we beat Wales in our last game in Cardiff. I was on the bench and in those days, the subs sat up in the stands. As I looked across Lady Diana was right next to us, in the Royal Box. When Eric Elwood got injured about 25 minutes in, I had to walk past her, down about six flights of stairs to pitch level, and I remember Derek Bevan, the fourth official, saying to me, ‘enjoy this now, Burky' as I walked past him. I kicked a drop goal and a couple of conversions and we won the game 16-12.
That led into the 1995 World Cup. What an experience that was. I kicked a few goals and played New Zealand when Lomu was released into the rugby world. The IRFU rewarded us for making the quarter-finals after a win over Wales with a night in the Palace Hotel in Sun City. My 13 caps for Ireland were spread over eight years (1995-2003) and I spent a lot of the time after the World Cup on the bench or playing A internationals. By the late 90s, Ronan O'Gara and David Humphreys had come onto the scene and they never seemed to get injured.
When the game went professional, I signed for Bristol on a two-year deal. Once that had expired, things had gone well enough for me to be offered a new three-year deal plus the captaincy for the 1998/99 season. However, I found out on the first day of my honeymoon that the club had gone bust when I picked up a newspaper and saw the news splashed all over the back page.
Obviously it was a worrying time and as Bristol were only prepared to offer me three months instead of three years, and wouldn't budge on that, I went to Cardiff, who had been interested in signing me before. In my first season, we were coached by Terry Holmes and we had a phenomenal squad; Rob Howley was my half-back partner. It was ‘the rebel season' when Cardiff and Swansea broke away to play the English clubs so there were a lot of quality games and the derbies between the two Welsh teams had even more of an edge about them.
“Even thought I was born in London, I declared for Ireland when I was 21”
Then Cardiff signed Neil Jenkins and the two of us played alongside one another for a season before I went to Harlequins. Jenks was a world-class player and a real gent but I wanted more regular game time. Harlequins still had a reputation as a Cup team but Mark Evans really built the club up on and off the pitch and by the time I left, four years later, we were getting full houses instead of the 3-4,000 people who were watching us when I first arrived in 2000.
In the 2000/01 season, we got to two Cup finals, agonisingly losing the first – the Tetley's Bitter Cup – to Newcastle in the dying minutes. Luckily we had a second crack at silverware when we got through to play Narbonne in the European Shield and won in extra-time. You don't get to many finals, and you want to win them when you get there. I kicked 28 points and nine from nine and a 40-yard drop goal. For any goalkicker, you remember those days especially when you do it in a final and win a medal. Every time we were awarded a penalty, I would say to the captain, David Wilson, ‘I'll take it on”. It doesn't happen very often but I just felt that it didn't matter where I put the ball down on that pitch, it would sail through the posts.
In 2004, I went back to Munster. Alan Gaffney was coach and they wanted someone who was experienced at 10, was reliable, and could kick goals and I ticked those boxes. As my wife is from Limerick, it was nice opportunity to go back having played there in the amateur era. My two years there culminated in us winning the Heineken Cup. I have never seen a city like Limerick or a province like Munster celebrate a win like they did that weekend. We flew into Shannon airport from Cardiff and there were people lining the road for the whole of the 20-mile journey back to the Clarion Hotel. Those are the memories you take from the game.
Leicester was a similar situation to Munster in that Paddy Howard had Ian Humphreys as a young 10, Andy Goode was in his prime years and they wanted an older 10 who could do a job when required. I knew I wasn't going to play every week but when I did play, I made sure I played well for the team. We won the Premiership that year and I think I played about 6-8 games. By that stage, I'd already started doing some coaching, mainly with the young lads like Ben Youngs, George Ford and Billy Twelvetrees, spending hours with them on the training pitch offering advice and being something of a mentor.
With my teaching background, coaching was something that I naturally lent towards and I got an early opportunity to step up from the academy and coach the first team when Matt O'Connor's arrival from Australia was delayed due to a visa problem. Heyneke Meyer asked me to look after the backs in pre-season until Matt arrived. He then asked me to stay as Matt's assistant and I did that for four years. It was a very successful period, we won Premiership, and agonisingly lost the Heineken Cup final to Leinster in Edinburgh. We had a great squad of players, the coaching group worked very well together and when Matt left to go to Leinster, I took over as backs coach.
I did that for a season-and-a-bit but it got to the point where I had to step away from pro rugby. You look at what's best for your family, and my family were getting to the age where schooling was really important. Also, I'd fallen out of love with the game a bit because it's so relentless at the top, it engulfs you. The coaching world isn't glamourous one bit, you are living your life week to week, game to game. It's hard. Your livelihood is dependent on 23 players turning up and performing on a weekend. I miss the relationships you build with players and the highs and lows you get, they are irreplaceable, and you do look on with envy at times, but you don't miss the pressure and anxiety. It's great when you win but not so great when you lose especially when you are at a club with huge expectations.
As a whole, I feel very blessed with my career. People may joke about the number of clubs I have played for but I wouldn't change it. It enabled me to go to places I wouldn't have otherwise gone to, meet lots of different people and play with some of the best players in the world. I looked after myself as a player and practised relentlessly and I hope I have instilled that work ethic into the next generation at Epsom College. I've been DoR there since 2015/16. I'm an old boy, I left in1991, and my girls have come through the school. It's worked well for me and the rugby programme here is going from strength to strength.
