‘Playing for Ireland was the major prize’

Captaining and representing Ireland from 1990-94 was a huge honour and something only a small percentage of people get to do in their lives. It was great but it was a fairly dismal period for Irish rugby, we didn’t win an awful lot. From a lot of players’ point of view, playing for Ireland was the major prize.

Ireland won the Triple Crown in 1984 but after that we had underperformed considerably. As much as we’d liked to have competed for titles we knew deep down that we didn’t have the player base to challenge.

Bar a few interesting results and running the All Blacks and Australia close, it wasn’t a rich picking ground for success. On a Monday morning the alarm clock would go off at 4:45am to go back to work and life continued, it was a lot of fun and I met many people that remain friends today. It was just a very different attitude to nowadays.

I was introduced to rugby by my parents who were both PE teachers, so I was encouraged to play every sport; rugby was one of them, football was another, I was an international age grade squash player, had trials for Northern Ireland Schoolboys in football and was a reasonably decent cricketer as well.

I played a fair bit during primary school but it was mainly football growing up until I went to my local grammar school which played rugby. Ireland’s school rugby system is unbelievably strong and Belfast Royal Academy were one of the big four schools in the city. In my fifth year, I got picked to play in an Ireland schools trial and then my last two years I played for Ulster and Ireland Schools in 1986-87.

Following that I went on a very successful Ireland Schools tour to Australia in 1987, we went 11 games unbeaten and got narrowly beaten by Australia Schools, who had the likes of Tim Horan, Jason Little and John Eales in their side (I actually played all three four years later at the World Cup). I then went to Queens University of Belfast which once held the record for most internationals of any club in the world. Quite a high percentage of guys went through the university system that went on to play for Ireland, it was a really strong breeding ground. You see now in the Premiership, BUCS Super Rugby feeding into the English game and that was what Ireland had many moons ago. It allowed you that nice period between 18-21 to mature into your game.

In action: Rob Saunders playing for Ireland during the 1991 Five Nations match against Wales

PICTURE: Getty Images

I was lucky in my first year to play for Ireland Universities in 1988, which at the time was probably the third choice Ireland team, and I remember my first game being against France Universities and they had Denis Charvet, Olivier Roumat and Fabien Galthie. I was lucky to have that nice time out of school to study, have a bit of fun and play rugby at a developmental pace.

To give an insight into how different the amateur era was compared to the professionalism and preparation of today, there’s a fantastic story involving Ireland second row Paddy Johns in 1989.

We (Ireland Universities) played French Universities in Reims on a Friday evening which was generally a curtain raiser to the big international on the Saturday. After the game they literally had a Champagne fountain and you’d never see so many students over indulge in your life.

“My friend Paddy nearly had to play for Ireland after drinking six bottles of beer”

The next morning we got up and got on the bus from Reims to Paris to watch the Ireland-France game. Paddy at the time was a University player and when we got to Paris he got dragged off the bus and is told Willie Anderson had come down with flu overnight and they didn’t have time to fly anyone over from Ireland and that he was to sit on the bench. However, the problem was that he had six bottles of beers on the coach.

It gets better. Paddy gets lumped on the back of a police motorbike and heads straight to Paris to the Irish hotel but has forgotten all of his kit including his size 14 boots which of course aren’t easy to come by. The police came all the way back to try and find his kit, he in the meantime has got kitted out. The national anthems are being played and then he’s sat in the stands for the first 20 minutes of the game. Noel Mannion, who was playing second row, went down and there was a point where Paddy at the Parc des Prince was on his feet thinking I’m going to make my debut without any boots on. The boots eventually arrive but he didn’t get on – just as well considering the six bottles of beer he’d had.

After university I was picked up by London Irish in 1990 and even though it was still the amateur days, I was taken back by the professionalism. Queens was a very well organised club, we ran seven teams on a Saturday and on a Monday evening you’d have a full two-man debrief of every game that had been played and selection could last from 7pm until midnight. But at the end of the Saturday it was someone’s job to go and wash the kit, we had to lay the flags out and after the game you were very much left to your own devices.

At London Irish, you didn’t need to bring anything other than your boots, everything else was done for you. Analysis was far greater and while at university you’d turn up and play against three men and a dog, London Irish you’d have 2,500 people come watch providing a brilliant atmosphere. Coming from Ireland, it was the centre of the London rugby world and a club with an amazing tradition. Four of the backs when I joined were all playing for Ireland and we won the English second division that year to get promoted to the first tier.

However, career wise I was much more ambitious. I wanted to get into financial services and rugby was amateur back then. We still didn’t get paid and it was very much a hobby.

It’s a cliche that you’re one injury away from your career ending but cliche’s tend to be borne out of the truth. I began to realise quickly that the game was moving into a professional era and that was something I never considered and it felt economically the right thing to do. Had I not already played international rugby it may have been different but by the time I was 26 I’d done that and had a young family to support by the time I retired in 1995.

I still have a keen interest in rugby with both my two sons playing. Ryan captains our local side Cobham and Niall, previously of Harlequins, plays for Tel Aviv Heat and in January will play for the Los Angeles Heat in Major League Rugby.

– as told to Ben Jaycock