MY LIFE IN RUGBY

DARRAGH O’MAHONY FORMER LEINSTER, MUNSTER, MOSELEY, BEDFORD, SARACENS AND IRELAND WING

IWENT from absolutely nowhere to all of a sudden being called up for Ireland’s World Cup squad in 1995. I was only 22 and had played a couple of seasons with University College Dublin but it still came as a shock.

At the time, I was living in the here and now and didn’t really appreciate the magnitude of the tournament – well, not until I was selected for my second cap (having made my debut against Italy) for the quarter-final against France.

I was the only change to the line-up (for Richard Wallace) from the final pool match against Wales, which we won 24-23, to make the last eight, and the full media glare seemed to be on me for a couple of days. We were in the match at half-time, at 12-12, but they pulled away in the second half to win 36-12. It was an indication of where Ireland were as a rugby nation that we were just relieved to get that far in the tournament. How times have changed!

After the World Cup I went back to Ireland to play for Leinster. Shortly after the game went professional, I signed for Moseley. Mark Anscombe, father of Wales fly-half Gareth, approached me and a few other lads from Ireland where he’d coached preciously. I won my third cap there and my fourth at Bedford where I played under Geoff Cooke and Paul ‘Tommy’ Turner.

The first season at Bedford was fabulous. We took a few big scalps and managed to stay in the Premiership. As a winger, I loved playing under Tommy because he was so innovative, and I always got plenty of ball. Saracens would have to be the pinnacle of my career though and the first two seasons went really well. I wasn’t blessed with pure speed, but I had good footwork and was probably at my most dangerous when taking opponents on in broken play.

As a winger your fortunes are often reliant on the relative strength of the team you’re playing for and Saracens had a strong side when I joined the club.

I scored a try virtually every other game and got three hat-tricks, against Richmond and West Hartlepool away, and then Harlequins which was always a big game, even then. It was really exciting to be at a club that was pushing the boundaries in every sense.

At that stage, the Heineken Cup was unrecognisable from the tournament I’d first played in for Leinster in its early days. Crowds were getting bigger and bigger and there was a lot more media coverage.

Two games stand out in my memory. First our 32-22 win in 2000 against Toulouse in France. They were the team to beat in Europe, especially at home, but I scored a try and Thomas Castaignede had a great game against his former club. The season before we played Munster and both games were excruciatingly close, but I’ll never forget the Thomond Park tie, that was a special one for me personally having grown up in Cork and played for the province.

Keith Wood scored at the death and Ronan O’Gara slotted the matchwinning conversion. In many senses, that game signalled the start of Munster’s journey to the top of Europe and the decline of Saracens as one of the leading teams. It’s taken us a few years to get back up the pecking order again but we’re certainly there now.

I left Saracens in 2004 at the age of 31 and played on for a couple more seasons in Irish club rugby before returning to my job with the Allied Irish Bank, who’d kept in close contact with me throughout my playing days.