Big finisher finds best way to finish

Denis Hickie is still lightning fast and fit as a flea, but his decision to go out on a high note and on his own terms makes sound sense, writes Gerry Thornley

Truly, Irish rugby may not see the likes of Denis Hickie for quite some time. Searingly quick, Caucasian, white Irishmen don't fall from trees, and his retirement was a salient, and perhaps timely, reminder that not only does time wait for no man, it also may not wait much longer for this golden generation. For Hickie, anyway, this World Cup is now or never.

To a degree, given how remarkably prolific his career, Hickie has been taken for granted. Not alone is he Ireland's joint-leading try scorer of all time, he is comfortably Leinster's leading try scorer. In 59 games for Ireland and 130 for Leinster he has averaged almost a try every two games.

Add in the innumerable tries and conversions his covering pace has denied opponents and one shudders to think how many points he's been worth to province and country over the last decade or so. All this despite a career that transcended the naughty 90s and three spells out of the Irish team through major injury - a fractured cheek bone, a broken jaw, a torn Achilles - and selectorial whims.

Through it all then, he has shown an uncommon resilience and professionalism. He has also always been of independent as well as strong mind and while his eve-of-tournament announcement of his impending retirement was something of a surprise, given he's still only 31 and looks as fit as a flea and as quick as ever, it was also somehow typical.

"There's been a fair bit of surprise, I suppose," he admitted. "It's funny to hear people's surprise because I've been so comfortable with it for so long. It was funny though because a lot of people . . . were surprised.

"A lot of my team-mates were surprised, which I could understand a bit, but more understanding. Some people think you are making the right decision. Other people were surprised and say, 'He's mad to be doing that.' So there's been a few different reactions as you can expect. But a lot of people have been very supportive."

He actually came to the decision last year.

"There's a lot of different reasons, some personal, some more obvious, but I always wanted to finish playing for Ireland, or at least when I was capable of playing for Ireland.

"My drive throughout my career is playing at the highest level," he reasons. "Some players are quite happy to pack in international rugby and concentrate on provincial rugby, which is fine and well, but from a personal point of view, if I can't play for Ireland I wouldn't continue to play."

Fair enough, but you put it to him that he could go on playing for Ireland for some time yet, and bring into evidence the reputedly strong efforts of Eddie O'Sullivan and Michael Cheika to persuade him to continue.

"Yeah, well, there is that element of it. But you know it's funny because I've heard people saying it's too early to retire that are some of the same people who were saying two years ago 'You're finished.'" It's not said through gritted teeth, more laughingly.

"If you have one bad game, in that moment, that power to retire on your terms is taken away from you and there's no way back, and it can happen in a week." Indeed, the more he explains it, the more logical it seems. He is retiring very much on his terms.

"You know you spend your whole career as a rugby player going from week to week wondering will you be picked and this is the one selection decision you can actually make yourself."

The flying winger concedes his summer sprint work and speed tests show him to be faster than ever.

"That doesn't make me question my decision; that makes me much more comfortable with my decision actually, to be honest, that I can say to myself . . . I went out or I decided to go out when things were at their best."

If nothing else he could have drawn a handsome international salary for the rest of this season and next, and perhaps because his career also started in the amateur era that was less of a consideration, though he maintains he doesn't know of one player for whom that is anything like the primary motive.

What the future holds is off limits, and in all his interviews Hickie remains in control, which is fair enough. He is being employed by TV3 during this World Cup, but assures me - with a look that says "you must be joking" - he has no plans to elbow his way into the journalism lark. Perhaps his musical interests will take him back toward radio work, though a degree in commerce suggests his main post-rugby career will lie elsewhere.

Hickie has also leaned on the experience of teammates such as Victor Costello and Eric Miller and come to the conclusion it can take a few years to get an alternative career up and moving. When he phoned long-standing teammates the night before his announcement, it was Costello who said, "You know you've made the right decision when people are trying to talk you out of it."

He admits it was a little emotional telling teammates but reckons it will be more emotional when the World Cup ends. And for the time being, he's more inclined to look toward the rest of his career than back.

This is surely the best-prepared, the most experienced, the most gifted Irish team going into a World Cup, you suggest.

"Yeah, but the rest of that sentence is 'playing in the toughest group in the most competitive World Cup against the best-prepared teams in the World Cup'. So we've improved and we're in a fantastic position but everybody has improved so it's still a very, very tall order to achieve what we are trying to achieve."

Hickie reckons that four years ago in Australia Ireland were taking a step into the relative unknown and didn't have that inner belief they could beat the hosts Australia in the pool, but now they do know if they play well they can beat anybody.

All that being said, he adds, "Anyone who wins the World Cup out of our group will have earned the World Cup. That would be a fantastic achievement, it really would be fantastic. Contenders yes, but with a rider or two. I think we're realistic contenders when we play well.

"The biggest pitfalls for Ireland are well known. If we lose a couple of key players we struggle, which is to be expected from the number of people at our disposal. That's one of the factors maybe that some of the other teams don't have to contend with as much. I still think we're contenders and we're not contenders because we say we're contenders. We're contenders because we've earned the right to be contenders."

Having arrived in France, Hickie is palpably excited, assuredly all the more so because he's conscious this is his last tournament. He likes France as a country and reckons it will make for a great World Cup from an Irish perspective, not only for those travelling and those watching at home but also for the team. But he deplores the horse trading that will see Edinburgh and Cardiff host games in the French Coupe du Monde in exchange for votes.

"It's farcical really compared with other sports, how that's even allowed to happen. And it's only allowed happen because it's about money really and I think that's a big disappointment for the tournament. That was the reason the last World Cup was a success, because it was all in one country.

"There's a reason why one country in every other sport hosts a World Cup and not four countries. It's for financial and political reasons. You can write that down if you want - it's too late to sanction me at this stage!"

Not that he's one to court controversy, but he can swing a little more freely from the hip now. Speculating aloud as to the show France will undoubtedly put on, he says, "This is a country where sport is part of the country as opposed to people turning up at the airport to welcome home the champs after they've done all the hard work. You know, that doesn't happen here because everyone is into sport and they put so much money into it.

"We talk about sport being important in Ireland but a lot of Irish people mightn't have been in sports facilities in these sorts of countries and it's very embarrassing actually to go to these places. You go into these small little one-horse towns and they have facilities better than the capital city of the country (Ireland)."

If he takes the same freedom of expression to the pitch in this, his last playing odyssey, Ireland will be the better for it.

"I am going to be mindful that I don't have many more games left so I want every game to be my best one. It's just human nature; you always think you'll have another chance, another chance, another chance - whereas I know exactly how many more chances I have left.

"It's a great way to go out," he concludes. "I don't see a better way to go out. What better way to retire than with a World Cup ending?"

And what better bookend than lifting the trophy?

"Of course it would be, yeah. That's why I decided to do it now."