PULLING on the Ulster jersey for the first time in 2009 was a proud day for me and my family. To be able to do what my dad did, in the 80s, was pretty cool because it was all I wanted to do growing up. Rugby played a big part in the upbringing of me and my brothers. On Saturdays, we’d run on oranges at half-time or be ball boys for the Instonians RFC 3rds, who were coached by my dad.
Although I played for Ireland U19s at a Junior World Cup, I was overlooked for the U20s when they changed the age groups. But I was captain of Queen’s University and the coach there ended up being the Ulster academy coach so I kind of got in through the back door rather than down the more conventional schools’ route.
I had great memories of the Heineken Cup as a fan. As a family we went to the quarter-final, semi-final and the final, which we won against Colomiers in 1999. I did miss David Humphreys’ match-winner against Stade Francais in the semi-final though because I ignored my dad’s advice to go for a wee behind the stand and ended up in a big queue for the toilets instead.
It’s incredible to think that it was also against Stade, some 10 years later, that I made my Ulster debut. I was playing club rugby, for Queens or Ballymena, the week before, and then all of a sudden, there I was in Paris with the pink posts and all the razzmatazz ready to face some of the best players in the world. I don’t mind admitting that I have never been as nervous before a game as I was then. I remember walking out onto the pitch thinking, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’. It was a dead rubber for us so the coach, Matt Williams, decided to throw a few of us youngsters in. I’ll always be grateful to him for giving me that opportunity.
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