He’s the first Irishman to win a Heineken Cup medal. So why don’t you recognize him?
SOME guys lay sport’s hard-earned baubles out on a sideboard for all to see, long after fresh mud has been scraped from a career’s boots. And why not? It’s hard enough to win something, right?
Others, however, wrap life’s medals in yesterday’s headlines and tuck them into a shoebox, out of sight. Winners don’t pin victory to their lapel.
Brian Roche is one such winner.
As Leinster’s best gear up for a tilt at Toulouse tomorrow, before Munster attempt to get past Biarritz in the bullring atmosphere of San Sebastian’s Estadio Anoeta in the Heineken Cup semi-finals, it’s apposite to remember the first Heineken Cup medal won by a son of Ireland.
A 35-year-old-year-old from the down-to-earth Togher suburb on Cork city’s southside, Roche grew up swinging a hurley in the famous blue of St Finbarr’s before a Highfield clubman suggested the teenager give the oval ball a spin. No problem.
“I started to get on well with it,” he explained this week over a coffee. “I got into the Munster and Irish team in my first, second year. And I was on the Cork minor panel then and I had to make a choice. So I stuck with the rugby.”
Roche – a skillful winger or fullback – eventually joined Sunday’s Well in his early 20s. As the new era of professionalism dawned, it wasn’t long before a stranger who had stood observing the action on the sideline approached with an intriguing offer.
“I played away a season with the Well – which was my father’s club – and someone approached me to go over to Bath for a trial. But I was just after starting a new job at the time so I turned it down. And he came back to me then and he said he’d give me a contract. So I said, I’d be stupid not to – I was 22. So I said I’d give it a go. And I went over and gave it a lash – and it was great.”
The circumspect young Leesider pushed open the dressingroom door to reveal a Mount Rushmore of rugby icons. Faces he was used to watching on the BBC and talking with his father about; Guscott, Evans, Catt. Welcome to the big leagues, kid.
“I was nervous enough going in there first day with all the guys who I’d know from the telly. But they were sound. Fierce nice altogether. Like myself, just down to earth, get on with it.
“It was just after the Lions tour in South Africa and a lot of the players were back from that. It was the first year of the Premiership and it was a really exciting time. I got a start in the XV in the first few games that were shown on Sky.
“Bath were only after signing Ieuan Evans and he was after getting married and going on honeymoon. So I got a shot – and I was lucky, I took it. But I was never going to hold on to it with these guys around.”
In what was a different era for Irish rugby, Munster, Leinster and Ulster earned a meagre 10 points between them. Bath topped their group – Roche featuring prominently throughout – with the same amount and made it to the final in Bordeaux against Brive.
As the English club won by a point, Roche watched happily from his flat in the picturesque English town with other teammates. It was no big deal when officials later slipped a medal into his hand. “I saw my Heineken Cup medal as a token from Bath after being involved in the group stages and was happy to accept it and put it away then,” he says, “I do see it as an honour but it’s done now and I move on. I don’t talk about it.”
After a stunning first taste of the pro game, he then chucked another U-ie on the road less taken.
“I was always a home bird and I was mad to come back at some stage but maybe in hindsight I would have been better off dropping down a level and going to a team that were maybe bottom half of the Premiership.” Instead he tugged on the red of his home province.
As Irish rugby has reached new stratospheres in recent years, Roche was the sport’s Neil Armstrong. And astronauts always come back different.
“I came home and got into the Munster squad and I went and lived in Limerick and joined Shannon. I got into the side after about four or five games and kept my place for the rest of the year. And without playing another game I was out of a squad of 30-odd for the following year. And to be honest, I took that hard.”
After some to-ing and fro-ing the Togher hurler who worked all the way onto the same team bus as Jeremy Guscott, returned to play intermediate football with his beloved Barrs before he returned to Highfield who ‘kickstarted his career’ to captain the side to a league championship in 2004. It probably meant as much as anything minted in Bordeaux.
Meanwhile, the European quest continued for Munster and as most climbed aboard the freewheeling bandwagon, Roche moved on without it. “I was bitter for a while but I’ve moved on now. I haven’t gone to one Munster game since I stopped playing with them. I watch them on TV and I support them, because they’re a great bunch of lads,”
Not that he has the time. After earning a level two coaching badge with the IRFU, as well as a fitness qualification, he has put the likes of the Barrs, Highfield, UCC’s MSL soccer team and most impressively the Cork hurlers through their paces. And typical of his uncanny timing, he had a front-row seat for the Rebels’ Gerald McCarthy soap opera.
“I learned loads from the Cork hurlers. Even their preparation – they leave no stone unturned; everything is looked into in minute detail. You throw all of those lessons into the memory bank and you use them again. I made mistakes coaching – and playing as well – but hopefully you don’t make the same mistake twice.”
If a European Cup win isn’t the top line on your coaching CV, then maybe being the man with the whistle standing between Donal Óg Cusack and Ger McCarthy should be. Though Roche insists he wasn’t involved with any tension in Pairc Uí Chaoimh at the time. “You wouldn’t train a more dedicated group of players. They’re brilliant to train with. The issues with the county board were none of my business. They’re an unbelievable group of players.”
Where before sitting back and watching his contemporaries do what they do best on the biggest stage was not his idea of relaxation, if Munster win tomorrow, ‘Rochey’ will happily watch the Paris final with a group of friends on his stag in a quiet West Cork town, ahead of his marriage to his fiancée, Nell.
Standing behind Roche when he’s married this summer, as throughout his career, will be his parents. His proud mother will watch on as her son achieves another personal first. And she might well wear an old gift from Brian on her lapel – a Heineken Cup medal he had made into a beautiful broach.
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