When the head rules the heart...
DURING the Saracens media day at St Albans before their Heineken Cup semi-final duel with Munster back in 2008, Richard Hill’s sizeable frame came into view amid a jarring contrast.
Here was a literal and metaphorical giant of world rugby, in the twilight of his career, afflicted with a permanent limp — the result of nine knee operations, including two reconstructions — yet he couldn’t have been hungrier to tear into Munster.
It was difficult not to draw a parallel when meeting Eimear Cregan, the most capped Irish hockey player of all time in Ursuline Secondary School, Thurles where she is a PE teacher.
Followers of the game have watched her terrorise defenders in a green jersey for a decade, but right now, just turned 29, she winces in pain while bending her knees to pose for the Irish Examiner photographer.
Cregan last month grudgingly announced her retirement from the international game after winning a remarkable 171 caps, revealing that a degenerative arthritic condition in both knees had forced her hand.
The Catholic Institute forward has lived with the injury for six years, but only those closest to her were aware of the sacrifices she was making just to get out on the pitch every week.
“I’ve been thinking about it for the past two or three years that this is going to come to an end,” says the Limerick native.
“Both knees are getting worse. I was managing it, but when you have a chronic injury, it’s in the back of your head that you’re not going to be able to keep playing.
“I want to give 100% all the time, and when you can’t do that you get very frustrated. But you can’t keep doing this to your body, you want to be able to walk around when you’re older as opposed to limping around with no knees.”
Cregan feels she owes a debt of gratitude to national coach Gene Muller, his assistant Denis Pritchard and physio Karen Coughlan for managing her situation and not making the retirement decision for her.
“It was a really difficult decision. I have got more than two or three years than I should have at international level, but it’s (having to retire) still a bit of a killer, I love international hockey.
“The reality is that if I didn’t have the understanding of the coaches and physios, I may have been gone. I haven’t done on-field running sessions for about two years because I just couldn’t take the impact. I’d do work in the pool, aqua jogging, rowing… anything to take the pressure off my knees, then go hell for leather with the hockey itself.
“You kind of want to hang on for sentiment, but in reality I was finding it hard to move around the pitch. Now I can just focus on club hockey and enjoy it; if I’m sore afterwards, I can recover.”
Cregan’s departure from the Irish setup, allied to those of Jenny McAuley and Bridget Cleland, means over 430 caps’ worth of experience has been stripped from Muller’s squad arguably when they need it most, as they line up a tilt at Olympic qualification.
However, Cregan says that while the squad’s age profile has decreased in recent years, their relative experience means she is not leaving behind a panel that is wet behind the ears at international level.
“If you look at the amount of girls Gene has brought in since his arrival (in 2006) who now have 70-90 caps, it’s phenomenal,” she argued.
“People might be looking at them and saying they’re very young, but they’re very experienced. I don’t see those girls as younger players, I see them as fully-fledged internationals. Players like Cliodhna Sargent, Shirley McCay, Alex Speers and Lisa Jacob have that experience now, they’ll be fine.”
That foursome are among 25 athletes currently participating in a centralised preparation programme (CPP), which attracted plenty of controversy in its development stage.
But since its implementation in October, all involved have sung the praises of a setup which allows an amateur squad train together for more than 20 hours a week.
Ireland must finish in the top three at this summer’s European championships — fifth is their highest ever ranking — to secure an Olympic berth or head down a notoriously treacherous qualifiers route, but Cregan says they have given themselves the best possible chance.
“I spoke to the squad a few days after I retired, and I told them that conditions are perfect for them to succeed,” she argues.
“There’s never been a crew in Dublin training every day together, on the pitch together three or four days a week, learning things off each other — stuff like who likes the ball out in front of them, who likes it a bit closer to their feet.
“You couldn’t do that when we were training at weekends, or when we’d go on a two- or three-day camp and it would take us time to get back in tune with tactics, and so on.
“There is no comparison between 2001 and 2011 in the training we’re doing, technically. We’re (becoming) more tactically aware of our opposition; we know that if we analyse them well and execute our game-plan we can beat anyone on our day.”
While she won’t be part of that particular odyssey, Cregan looks back at her career with fond memories. She made her debut against Wales in 2001 at just 19, and cites the 2002 World Cup in Australia and the 2005 Europeans on home turf in Dublin as the obvious stand-outs, while the record caps haul is another source of pride.
“It was more of an achievement for me because I earned more than half my caps with my injury,” she explains. “There would have been a lot of mentally tough stuff, so it is a big achievement for me.
“I am really proud to have the record and I didn’t take any game for granted because of the injury. I feel very lucky.”
