Jackman: I’ll stay involved

BERNARD JACKMAN, forced to retire prematurely due to injury, pledged yesterday to stay involved in the game he graced with distinction for province, club and country over a 15-year spell.

The Leinster and Irish hooker is to take up a full-time coaching position at Clontarf, whom he coached on a part-time basis for much of this season.

Jackman finally gave in to reality when he admitted: “The decision to retire wasn’t mine, to be honest. I failed a medical a couple of months ago as regards a contract for next year. I’d love to continue to play, but my body is not up to it and that’s the hard part.”

Recurring knee injuries proved to be the major obstacle as he explained: “I got through last season fine like that but this season I have been getting less and less game time and I was getting more and more unfit because I couldn’t train and it gradually got worse.

“I’m not up to it, you know, even playing 5-a-side would be a struggle. I haven’t played for three or four weeks and my knees are still quite sore. Before, if I didn’t train for four or five days they’d ease off and I’d be fine for the next game. It is just this season. I hadn’t much game time ‘til February and I got a couple of game because Fogs (John Fogarty) was injured and I played quite well and I thought “Jesus, I can still play”. But after those three games, I got sorer quicker and I’m just not able to do it anymore, unfortunately,” he said.

In terms of coaching, he is quite content to ply his trade in north county Dublin but expressed an interest in moving upwards at some stage and has clear ideas that he would be keen to become involved with Ireland at some level eventually.

Meanwhile, another to follow Jackman out of Leinster is defence coach Kurt McQuilkin, who is to return home to New Zealand to reassess where his career path is going.

“I think it’s been a brilliant time for me but it’s a good time for me to move on, with the new coach coming in. It will give the players another new voice to listen to, someone to help take the club further up the ladder.

“I considered the players in this but I felt the time was right for me to take a step back to regather myself, to take another look at it down the line. It was a family thing too; it may sound like a hugely glamorous life being a professional rugby coach but you’re looking at a hell of a lot of work at the weekends, in the evenings too, and you don’t see much of your family. I’ve got a young family and I would just like to hang out with them for a while.”