IRELAND RUGBY LEGEND Shane Horgan said his famous Croke Park try against England was ‘probably’ the finest moment of his career.
Speaking on Newstalk’s Off the Ball, the Leinster man said he was “a little bit nervous” about his retirement, which was officially announced today, but added that he had received plenty of advice from other ex-players on the subject.
He explained that retirement felt “a little bit strange,” saying that he discovered he would be forced stop playing professional rugby “definitively only a couple of weeks ago”.
He continued: “You fool yourself into thinking there could be a miracle recovery, until the surgeon told me rugby wasn’t going to be a possibility.”
He added that he continues feel pain in his knee, despite two separate bouts of surgery, which he said had been successful.
“Day to day is still an issue. Down the road I’m hoping to be pain-free again,” he said. “Normal movements are aggravated as a result, but we’re slowly getting on top of it and it’s looking like an end point will hopefully be around nine months.”
He also spoke of the significant changes made to the game of rugby over the course of his career.
“Professional rugby was something that was never an option when I was growing up. You never really thought of it as a job, because it wasn’t a job.”
He added that when the prospect of playing professional rugby arose, “it was like someone telling you your best-case scenario had just come true,” and explained how Leinster only had “four or five professional rugby players” when he began his career.
(Horgan celebrates winning the Heineken Cup with Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy – the match that would turn out be his last game as a professional rugby player – INPHO/Dan Sheridan)
In addition to highlighting the famous Croke Park moment, Horgan singled out his first cap, the autumn internationals and the 2003 World Cup as other times to savour during his career.
And in relation to that special occasion in Croke Park, he said:
“After the game in Twickenham, a group of my old school friends decided to jump on a plane to London. They came over. Not a lot of them had places to stay. Some of them slept rough. So I was quite touched by that.
“And I was convinced something was going to happen during the English national anthem, but it was so impeccably observed that it did disarm the England team.“I think it was one of the instances where the crowd had a direct impact on the game.”
And on the matter of his life after rugby, Horgan said that having received his master’s in Law in Trinity, the profession would “hopefully be one of the routes” he’ll consider, but acknowledged that “it’s important to take a bit of time” to assess his options.