Home is where the heart is after French sojourn for Con star Scannell

The Cork native is more than happy to be lining out for his boyhood side in the AIL after his professional experience with Biarritz.

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS: Cork Constitution's Billy Scannell

Whether it is celebrating on the top deck of a Cork City sightseeing bus or driving to Dublin with the Energia All Ireland League trophy strapped into the passenger seat, Billy Scannell has plenty of reasons to justify his decision to walk away from professional rugby.

The Cork Constitution hooker was representing the newly crowned men’s Division 1A champions in the capital this week and delivered the trophy as league title sponsors Energia announced they were renewing their multi-level partnership with the IRFU for another five years to 2029. At the age of 24, the three-and-a-half year stint at Biarritz he began as a 19-year-old is disappearing into the rear-view mirror and Scannell is perfectly at ease with his direction of travel, both literal and figurative.

Midway through his accounting exams, with a first-class degree in Commerce already earned, the Cork man, younger brother of Munster stalwarts Niall and Rory, is set to join the graduate programme at Deloitte later this year. And having collected an AIL winner’s medal at the end of his second season back in club rugby, the celebrations that followed were as memorable as the on-field success, when Cork Con reclaimed the title for the first time since 2019 with a backs to the wall victory over defending champions Terenure College at Aviva Stadium on April 28. The victory, which saw the Temple Hill side play the final hour with 14 men following a red card for club player of the year John Forde, and then lose two more players to yellow cards.

“We made tough work it, down to 12 men at one stage, so definitely something we weren’t used to during the season,” Scannell told the Irish Examiner. “We’d had a few yellow cards but we definitely didn’t get a red 20 minutes into a game.

“So we made it hard on ourselves but we luckily we’d done enough early and hung on and a few big moments in the game that I’d say we’ll never forget. It was brilliant to get it in the end and a first win in five years so nice to have Cork club winning 1A.” The success prompted an outpouring of joy and relief having lost two semi-finals in a row in the previous seasons, which took a turn for the comical when the team commandeered a hop-on, hop off tourist bus for an impromptu and unofficial parade around their home city.

“We had a great two weeks after it to be fair. Things calmed down after that, thank god.” “The Tuesday after the final a few lads were doing their exams in college, they were doing their Masters and it was their last exam so they weren’t able to celebrate with us on the Monday after the final. So we decided to go pick them up from the exam hall, went out onto the Western Road by the Mardyke, where the exam was and the Cork City Hop-On Hop-Off bus was stopping by.

“It was the last bus of the day, nobody else on it besides two very scared Spanish tourists. In fairness the bus driver said ‘guys, I know you’re celebrating, let’s just keep it calm’ so we did. There was a few chants and then we passed Anglesea Street Garda Station and we thought we were in trouble when the driver said ‘can you send down your captain there lads.’ “We were all shaking for a second but the next thing the driver said was ‘will we drive down Patrick Street?’ It wasn’t even on the route, they just drove us down there. We had great fun, one of the highlights of the celebrating.” It is the sort of experience which for Scannell vindicates his decision to leave the paid ranks having left the Munster sub-academy in 2019 to join Biarritz in France’s ProD2.

“It was a great experience and I probably didn’t appreciate it enough, when I went over I was only 19 so looking back now it was unbelievable, and great memories there. I met people from all over the world playing there, people from Fiji, Tonga, South Africa, Georgia, Spain. There was a big mix in the club and in terms of life experience it was great, really enjoyable but definitely being back playing in the AIL has been great.

“I’ve done two seasons with Con now, settled in my first year and luckily my second year, we won the AIL, so looking forward to getting stuck into the third season.

“There’s definitely times when you miss professional rugby but I was getting to the stage where I just wasn’t getting to the level I wanted to play at and coming back to Con was great, playing with all my friends from Con under-age before I went to Pres.

“I know it’s called amateur rugby but the AIL in the last couple of years I’d call it elite level as opposed to amateur. It’s a tough, very competitive league and every game in it matters and you could see that with the league table this year, it was quite close and it went to the last day to figure out the bottom half and who was going down and who was going into play-offs. It was all so close and competitive.” Billy added his Biarritz jersey to the Scannell wall of fame in the family hallway following his Challenge Cup appearances but there are other priorities now, closer to home.

“When I came home from France I had other offers, in lower professional leagues that I was considering but I felt I’d be happier finishing college and playing at home and it’s been great. It’s nice to be back close to family and my girlfriend and I get to watch my two brothers playing for Munster so I still feel somewhat involved watching them.

“At home now we have the three brothers’ European jerseys hanging up in the hall, two red Munster ones and a pink Biarritz one!

“There’s definitely aspects of professional rugby that I miss but I was only in it when I was young for a couple of years. I decided to get college finished and now I’m just enjoying rugby way more as well. That’s a massive part of it for me.”