‘I just enjoy the present’

Conor O’Shea isn’t inclined to look back to Bloodgate nor forward to a possible role in the Irish set-up. For the moment, it’s all about Wasps tonight at The Stoop. Harlequins’ director of rugby spoke to Simon Lewis

CONOR O’SHEA is very much the man for the ‘now’. In his first season at the helm of Harlequins, the former Ireland full-back is interested not a jot in the London club’s turbulent recent past. His varied career path since being forced to retire prematurely through injury confirms his admission that he is not the person to plan too far ahead.

So when he was asked to discuss tonight’s Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-final and local derby with Wasps, the club’s first big European tie since the infamous ‘Bloodgate’ scandal of 2009, O’Shea struggled to see any further than last Saturday evening’s Aviva Premiership clash with Leicester Tigers.