WALTER WALSH HAS says he’s enjoying playing rugby again with his club New Ross after deciding to retire from the Kilkenny hurlers.

The three-time All-Ireland winner had skills with the oval ball game during his youth, but opted to concentrate on hurling when his schedules started clashing. Playing with south-east Leinster teams up to around 14 or 15 was as far as he progressed before diverting away from rugby.

He has no regrets about his choices, though. He can’t say for certain, but he doesn’t believe a career with Leinster or Ireland was ever on the cards for him. Instead, he embarked on a run with Kilkenny that started with a debut in the 2012 All-Ireland final replay against Galway. He dazzled with 1-3 that day in a man-of-the-match performance. Two more Liam MacCarthy Cup triumphs followed in 2014 and 2016.

Now that the curtain has dropped on his Kilkenny career, he’s eager to keep a promise he made to his New Ross associates and get back on the rugby field. Out-half was his preferred position in his younger days but he’s been finding a new home at 15 upon his return.

“It takes a while to get back, I was a bit rusty,” says Walsh. “In terms of going back in at number 10, I couldn’t see that. You need to know calls at 10. There’s a lot more responsibility. But I enjoy the rugby.

“You’re out of the way a bit at full-back. Catch the ball and kick it, it’s not a bad position. I told the lads in New Ross that I’d come back and play whenever I finish with Kilkenny. I didn’t think I’d be playing with Kilkenny this long, the boys were probably wondering if I’d ever come back.”

Walsh hopes to continue hurling for his club Tullogher–Rosbercon, who he won a Junior All-Ireland title with last season. However, he has some injuries that need to be addressed as well. He tore his groin off the bone during a league match against Offaly in February, and was lucky to avoid surgery. He spent a period of 16-17 weeks rehabbing it and is still doing the work to fully restore the muscle. He also has problems with his thumb that require surgery, namely a joint that’s “all over the place,” and ligaments which are ruptured.

His rugby commitments are pushing that surgery plan to the background for now. And there are two new arrivals at home who need his attention too.

“I have to feed babies now so I don’t know when I’m going to get that operation,” he says of the birth of his twins, Charlie and Kate. Twins are in his wife Vicki’s family, making life blissfully busy for Walsh and company.

“It’s exciting times. Two of everything is great,” he adds.

Reflecting more on his Kilkenny career, Walsh talks about the shock he felt when he discovered he would be starting the replay of the 2012 All-Ireland final. Nothing in the build-up suggested he was in contention for a place in the team having lost the All-Ireland U21 final to Clare after the draw in the senior final.

“I just remember when my name was announced on the Friday to be starting,” he recalls. “Everyone was shocked in the room and so was I.”

Just 21 at the time, the sudden burst of fame had a considerable impact on his life. Brian Cody’s management team made every effort to usher him through that period, something which he has come to realise in hindsight.

“It was mad, it changed my life in many ways. But it kind of went over my head a bit. Maybe I was lucky I was so young at that time. I think if it happened now with social media and everything, it would have blown out of proportion. I was in college [at the time], got my degree, became a teacher and did my farming.

“It didn’t really change me but maybe more people recognised me. I’d like to think it didn’t change me a whole lot. I’d like people to think that of me as well.

“Brian Cody is a good man to keep you grounded, that’s for sure. The management team that was there wouldn’t let anyone get big-headed. They were excellent and looked after me without me knowing they were looking after me. I wasn’t doing a whole pile of media. Not that the media is a bad thing, but they just let me go play my hurling.”

Walter Walsh has teamed up with AIB to support the GOAL mile. As part the campaign AIB is offering people who register for the GOAL Mile the chance to win one of the ten €1,000 prizes for their GAA, Camogie, or LGFA club.