David Wallace: ‘Money can only go so far... a lot of other things that go into winning rugby matches’

David Wallace continues to be held in high esteem by current players, with Ireland captain Jamie Heaslip recently saying he was ‘gutted’ to break Wallace’s record as Ireland’s most-capped back-row...

Q: The recent World Cup was the first played since your retirement. How different was the emotional attachment you felt this time around?

A: Unfortunately World Cups haven’t been lucky for me — a bit like Ireland! My only real World Cup was in ’07 and that wasn’t a great one for us. I was called out for Alan Quinlan in 2003 when he was saving Irish rugby, as he says himself, by scoring that try against Argentina. Then in 2011, just a few days before we were meant to fly out to New Zealand I had a very bad injury in my knee, and that was difficult. This time around enough water had gone under the bridge. You’re definitely out of the game and you’re a fully-fledged supporter now.