Holland’s focus now on what matters most – his family
OVER the last few months, as Billy Holland contemplated his future rugby career, his mind kept coming back to the most important aspect of his life nowadays – family.
In the end, the decision to hang up his boots at the end of the season was a rather straightforward one. When you have been through such a traumatic life-changing experience, you view the world through a completely different prism.
Holland’s son, Matthew, turned one yesterday, a special occasion that he and his wife, Lanlih, were so grateful to be able to share with each other.
For Billy and Lanlih, every day with Matthew is one to be cherished after they suffered the indescribable pain of losing their daughter, Emmeline, a day short of her six-month birthday in 2019.
As Billy said shortly after Matthew was born last year: “He’s our little gift from Emmeline, and we are so proud of him.”
It has been an incredibly tough couple of years for the family, yet the strength and courage with which Billy and Lanlih so honourably displayed in public has undoubtedly helped many other families who have sadly been down the same road.
Emmeline’s tragic passing inspired the nation after her parents’ remarkable work helped raise much-needed funds and awareness for sick kids.
Donated
The #BraveLikeEmmeline campaign raised well over half-a-million euros, which was donated to three grateful children’s charities.
Throughout his 14-year career with Munster, Holland has never been one for the limelight, nor is he looking for it now, as he seeks to bow out with the minimum of fuss.
Although he has no intention of going into coaching, Holland will miss everything that comes with being a professional rugby player. However, now 35, he feels it is the time to focus his priorities on those who mean the most to him.
“I have had first-hand experience of how important family is, how it is so important to enjoy the everyday moments of life, and the ups and downs of that,” Holland says.
“I have an incredible appreciation of watching my son taking his first steps at the moment. I am lucky to be able to see that. You don’t want to be missing that because I’m away for a weekend or I’m away at training, or whatnot.
“Everyone works 9 to 5, Monday to Friday when you finish playing rugby, so it’s not like I’m just going to be sitting at home.
“Rugby is all-consuming and it dominates family life. My wife has sacrificed many things over the years to allow me to play rugby.
“You can’t plan ahead, these are all the things that professional rugby players deal with, that’s just the way
it is. But I have a strong appreciation of wanting to be at home. It is the little things that I take joy out of in my home life.”
Holland’s influence has stretched far beyond the Munster dressing-room, where he has been a key voice for the last number of years, particularly as he helped keep the show on the road while the Ireland players were away on international duty.
He has won various awards with his home province, yet none were as significant as being awarded the ‘Contribution to Irish Society’ accolade at the Rugby Players’ Ireland Awards last October.
“What myself and my wife and my family went through was incredibly difficult, and that’s putting it mildly, but what we managed to do afterwards with the support of our families and the public is something I’m very, very proud of,” Holland acknowledges.
“I don’t particularly like the spot
On this week’s episode of The Left Wing, Will Slattery and Luke Fitzgerald are joined by Cian Tracey to assess where Ireland are midway through the Six Nations campaign and discuss whether Eddie Jones can turn England around.
Listen on independent.ie/sport
light but I was encouraged, and thankfully so, to use the status I have as a professional rugby player to make people more aware of what goes on in hospitals around the country and what many people have to deal with with sick children, and the money we managed to raise and the awareness we brought around the place.
“And we talk about if you’re a good leader in a club, you show vulnerability, and I think I had to do that and I’m very glad that we did that. That award is something that I’m proud of receiving on behalf of my family, certainly.”
There have been tough times along the way with Munster, too, particularly in the early days when Holland found game-time hard to come by with so many international back-rows and locks in the squad.
Lingered
The temptation to up sticks and try something different elsewhere lingered a couple of times, but he has remained a one-club man, who last weekend overtook Ronan O’Gara on Munster’s all-time appearance list when he played his 241st game. Only Donncha O’Callaghan (268) has played more.
“When you look back, I got my 100th cap in 2014,” Holland reflects.
“I was nearly 30 by the time I got 100 caps and I have racked up 140 in my 30s, which is quite unusual.
“When Rob Penney was leaving I had a sit down with him, and he thought it was best for me to move on and move to greener pastures. I didn’t and I’m glad I stayed put.
“I broke my ankle fairly quickly after that and we had a tough season under Axel’s (Anthony Foley’s) first year.
I came in and it just went well and snowballed.”
Holland’s perseverance ensured he won an Ireland cap against Canada in November 2016, and even if he is disappointed not to have played more often for his country, the Cork man is immensely happy that he got the chance to pull on the green jersey.
“I’m very proud that I have played for Ireland,” he adds. “Yes, I’m disappointed and I had hoped to have graduated from Axel’s one-cap wonder team. He updated that quite frequently!
“I am disappointed I didn’t get more, but I can safely say I felt like I did everything in my powers, I did plenty of sessions.
“Sometimes you are just not a coach’s type of player. You can be so good at something and if a coach doesn’t like you or appreciate you, or you are not part of their type of game-plan or plans going forward, there is nothing you can do about that.
“And that’s at all levels. But I have been lucky over the years. I’ve had six head coaches at Munster who have all had an appreciation of what I do.
“You need that. Sometimes coaches . . . I’m not saying, for instance, that Joe (Schmidt) who was the coach then, that he didn’t like me. I know that he liked me, but there were guys that he rated ahead of me.
“That’s perfectly OK, that’s his decision. I’m proud to have played for Ireland and I’m proud of a lot of things I have done in my career.”
Holland has every reason to be proud of his rugby career and while he is aiming to go out on a high by winning a trophy with Munster, his achievements off the pitch will equally stand the test of time.