Keith Wood: 'After a Lions series, every player that went on tour is wrecked'

The former Ireland hooker on his rugby family, why Andy Farrell’s side need to rebuild and the physical toll of touring with the Lions

PRIDE: Keith Wood with his son Tom: "Under-20s rugby is fantastic to watch. A lot of mistakes are made but players try things that a senior team wouldn’t. There’s joy and a freedom to it."
Pic: Ben Brady/Inpho

I have known Keith Wood for nearly 30 years and so it’s easy to talk about life and death long before we move on to rugby. But the game always provides context and, last Friday afternoon, the 54-year-old former Lions hooker and Irish captain drove to Cork to watch his youngest son, Tom, play for Ireland against Italy in the Under-20 Six Nations.

The previous weekend Tom made his first-team debut for Munster to match his dad and the grandfather he never met. Gordon Wood played for Munster, as well as Ireland and the Lions, before he died, aged 50, in 1982. Keith was only 10 when that first tragedy occurred but he went on to play for the same three teams as his dad.