Alan Quinlan gets to grips with Leicester's Neil Back in 2002
© Getty Images
|
Hugh Farrelly salutes Munster flanker Alan Quinlan, who will call time on his career at the end of the season, in The Irish Independent.
""To be a warrior is not a simple matter of wishing to be one, it is rather an endless struggle that will go on to the very last moment." - Carlos Castaneda
"One by one, they are dropping off. The last links to the All-Ireland League-driven amateur era which forged the success Irish rugby has experienced, and continues to experience, since 2000.
Munster's Keith Wood, Peter Clohessy and Mick Galwey successfully bridged the amateur and professional days, as did Ulster's Paddy Johns and David Humphreys and Eric Elwood with Connacht -- all long since retired.
"In more recent times, Denis Hickie, Malcolm O'Kelly and Girvan Dempsey have moved on, and John Hayes and Ronan O'Gara are on the last laps of glittering careers dating back to Saturday afternoons in the 1990s when thronged clubhouses around the country stood glued to AIL teletext results, pints temporarily forgotten."
RSS feed
