Hogan’s courage pays dividends

LET’S get the obvious out of the way first; this weekend, for the final round of pool games in the Heineken Cup, Trevor Hogan should be preparing for Munster’s massive game against Leicester in Thomond Park.

He’s not. Instead, this proud son of Tipperary — accent intact after several years as both student and rugby player in Dublin — will be in Kingsholm, just as proud in the blue of Leinster as they face their own critical match against Gloucester tonight. It’s not that Trevor, having spent a couple of seasons in the Munster squad and having become a regular starter in the Celtic League, preferred to migrate north and eastwards. Circumstances dictated it.

His talent was obvious, but with a couple of second-rows of the calibre of Paul O’Connell and Donncha O’Callaghan ahead of him in Munster, and Mick O’Driscoll making a huge impression on his return from France, he knew. A journalism graduate, he read the writing on the wall, and it was pointing directly towards the exit.