The long road back

AUTUMN four years ago and Victor Costello had good reason to be pleased. Didn’t he? National senior shot-putt champion at 16, Olympian at 21, before progress to the Irish rugby team. Twenty two caps before fading from the international scene.

But Costello was brooding. He wasn't looking back, he was looking forward, to a rugby World Cup just about to start in these islands, without his considerable presence in the green No 8 shirt.

Deeply unhappy.