Expansive game proves instant hit

SPORTING PASSIONS - RUBY WALSH:Ireland's champion jockey is used to finishing ahead of the pack but, as a scrumhalf at Naas, he played behind it. He talks to Mark Rodden.

I GOT INTO rugby through a man called Ted Coughlan, who's married to my mother's sister. He was training the under-10 team in Naas and I went along one Saturday morning with my cousin. I played from the time I was seven until I was 18, when I finished school.

When you were playing across the pitch at under-10 and under-12, you played everywhere and you didn't really know what you were supposed to be doing. When you moved on to the full pitch at under-14, that's when you started to get a position. I played scrumhalf and I was part of a really good Naas team. We got to a couple of cup finals and won a couple of leagues and I always enjoyed it.

I loved the fact that you were always involved. I hated that about playing GAA - if you were on a really good team and playing corner back you never saw the ball!

In our area, I loved that there was always training for rugby as well. At under-10 or under-12 you trained every Saturday or else you had a blitz. When you moved up to under-14s there was training every Wednesday night and a game on the Saturday. If you didn't turn up for training you didn't play. It was a set routine and I enjoyed that. It was great fun and there was great camaraderie.

We'd a great outhalf in Alan Ward and a couple of great backs and they were always inventive. He used to watch the French teams play so every week he'd turn up at training with a new move and we would try to bring it off. We were forever spreading the ball and never kicking it. We ran everything and we had great fun.

I remember we played one day, I think it would have been at under-14, and Bob Casey was playing for North Kildare. We couldn't understand why it was taking four of us to tackle him but I suppose down the line we realised why!

I had a trial for Leinster at under-16 but I was so used to playing with great backs outside me I was never one to take it on myself. I didn't understand the game enough either to have made it as a scrumhalf. I was pretty one- dimensional - tackle and pass, that was me.

In the 1991 World Cup, the Wednesday after Australia beat Ireland, Nick Farr-Jones and Michael Lynagh came down to Naas rugby club and showed us a few things at training. I always watched Nick from then on.

I used to love Joost van der Westhuizen for South Africa, I thought he was amazing as well. Of the current scrumhalves, you'd have to admire Peter Stringer - he's a hardy player and always gives it a go. Eoin Reddan is very lively too and they're two great players. I watch all the internationals and I love watching Munster playing. I'd watch Leinster too, but I enjoy watching Munster play.

I was on an aeroplane and only got to see a replay of it but Ireland beating England in Croke Park was a special game in many ways.

The World Cup semi-final in 1999 when France beat New Zealand was an amazing game to watch too. France came back from a ridiculous score behind to win it.

To watch the French in full flow, spraying the ball all over the park, is incredible. That's the kind of rugby I like watching.

The game has changed. It's professional now and it's all about big tackles and big hits. But to watch Gordon D'Arcy and Brian O'Driscoll in full flight is amazing and the two Munster guys, Lifeimi Mafi and Rua Tipoki, and the different wingers. I always enjoyed watching free-flowing rugby. I love when a game gets open and it's going end-to-end.

Obviously if you played as a prop or a hooker as a kid you'd prefer watching a tight game because you'd understand what's going on more in the rucks and the scrums. But when you only threw the ball in the front and took it out the back you never understood what was going on in there.

I'd love to see the discipline that rugby players can play with and the respect that rugby referees have implemented in soccer. I think the way some of them carry on is ridiculous. What they say, the way they treat referees, I think it's disgusting.

I've been a Manchester United fan since I was in school. Back then to win the FA Cup was great because they hadn't won anything in so long but now they're a great team. I've been fortunate enough to meet Alex Ferguson and ridden a few winners for him. He's a wonderful man and they're a great club. But I still prefer rugby.