Getting out while the going was okay - aged 27

AN OUTSTANDING former Ireland under-19s and under-21 scrumhalf, Brian O'Riordan played professionally for four years with Leinster and then for two with Bristol, before "retiring" this season at 27 and opting to play for Lansdowne.

"I had a shoulder reconstruction at the end of March in my first season with Bristol when they were third in the Premiership and I was playing every week, so it came at a bad time," he says.

"I was still getting some game time and playing in the Heineken Cup last season, but I decided that if I wasn't there or thereabouts with the Irish squad I wanted to get out and do other things. If something really good came up in Leinster or a major club I might have left it open for another year.

"I did economics and finance in UCD in 2002, so it was a relatively new degree. I knew I wanted to get into some business involved with numbers and dealing with people.

"At Bristol, you started at 8am or 8.30am so you were finished by lunchtime and I did various courses. I did stockbroker exams and diplomas in stock markets and investments and did some work experience one day a week in Bristol with an investment firm called Hargreaves Lansdown. I was advised by business people that the longer you left it the more unemployable you'd be unless you were a high profile player.

"I'm surprised that 40 per cent retired through injury. I thought it would be more like 20 per cent, but it's such a physical game and there are such demands on the body I'd imagine it will only get worse as time goes on.

"I got a job in Paddy Powers and I'm really enjoying it. I do the rugby prices and then I'm an 'in-running trader', and still playing with Lansdowne."