Coll to Clare is thanks to Colm

UGWUERU HAILS FORMER BANNER BOSS’S PURSUIT

ringing your phone. You have to accept it one of these days.’

“Obviously I did accept it and playing under him was class. He always saw potential in me, even if I didn’t see it in myself. Same as my coach with Éire Óg, Paul Madden.

“He saw potential in me too but I didn’t see it. I was playing

rugby.

Decided

“They were like, if you give this a full crack you never know where this might go with it.

“Then I decided to give it a full shot and here we are now.” Ugwueru continued: “It had always been in the back of my head but I just never thought I’d see it though really because I just thought rugby would just take over everything and I’d continue playing that.

“That’s what I always tell my brothers and sisters and my friends — only do stuff that you enjoy, because if you start to not enjoy it, it will just become a burden on you.

“So I’m just really enjoying football right now and who knows, I might go back to rugby sometime in the future.

“I don’t know. But right now it’s just all focussed on football really.”

Ugwueru is still in contact with Shannon and the players.

“I see them play every week and I still follow their season,” he says.

“I would have made a lot of friends on the team and still talk to them, so obviously it’s in the back of my head but right now it’s just all football.

“I feel like the main thing with me is I’m enjoying the football.

“I feel like wasn’t enjoying it, it would be a chore and I wouldn’t put my best foot forward every time I step on to

CLARE-LY A STAR: Ugwueru with the Banner if

Ithe pitch.

“Obviously the crossover between rugby and Gaelic football is kind of similar. I just use my attributes from rugby on the pitch in Gaelic football.

“I feel like it has done me well, with my pace, my strength and my sidestep.

“I feel like I’m using that to my advantage. I’m just going to continue that too.

“Obviously I’m going to improve on the other aspects of my game, like my shooting.

“I wouldn’t be known for being a shooter.

“But I feel if I work on that. It will be something I can add to my game.”

Meeting

Clare have made it to back to back Munster finals for the first time since 1937, but last year they fell by 5-14 to 0-15 to Kerry.

It was Ugwueru’s first time meeting Kerry in the Championship.

“I saw them on TV, but seeing them on TV and playing them in person is a completely different thing,” he says.

“So it was a learning curve for me and it was only my second time playing Kerry. I’d played them in the McGrath Cup before.

“To be fair to them, they are one of the top teams for a reason.

“But I feel like we let the occasion get the better of us and we were kind of afraid of what Kerry would do to us and didn’t really worry about our own game.

“That’s just a player thing.

“It happens sometimes and I feel like this time we won’t focus on too much outside noise and just ourselves, so that’s what we are doing right now.”