Shane Byrne
Shane Byrne
Retired from Rugby 2009
History in Sport
Shane started his Rugby journey relatively late at the age of 13 after coming from traditional Irish sports (Gaelic football & hurling) together with athletics.
He initially joined his local club Aughrim playing Gaelic Football and continued to play to under 16 level.
Joined Blackrock college – 1990 – Started as a sprint relay specialist (yes its true!)
First team schools club 1989 / 90 Playing as wing foreword, prop & hooker
1989/90 season began specializing as a hooker (aged 17)
1991 – 2009 -Blackrock college RFC
During this time with Blackrock Shane also played for;
1992 -2005 – Leinster (Turned professional 1995/96 with Leinster)
2005-2007 – Saracens
Awards
Celtic league champions 2000
First player to reach 100 caps for Leinster
Retired professionally in 2007 however Shane continued playing for Blackrock until 2009
Shane’s background in multiple sports at an early age clearly played a significant part in his early physical development but interestingly and in an unsurprisingly direct way Shane says ‘I really was rubbish at Rugby until I was 17 and then the penny dropped’ and boy did it drop – Shane then went on to play representative rugby until he was 39.
Shane played for a multitude of teams on the way to becoming a full international.
The journey looked something like this:
Leinster Schools
Irish Colleges
Irish Students
Ireland U21
Ireland A
Ireland
International Career
Between 2001 and 2005 Shane represented Ireland 41 times scoring 15 points – he also had the honor of representing the British and Irish Lions in the tour of New Zealand in 2005
Shane commented ‘I loved the physical side of Rugby, there is nothing better than good explosive attacking Rugby and I was immensely proud to have represented my country’
Today
Nowadays Shane own’s a waste solutions company called Arklow waste disposal
www.awdgroup.ie
Shane is still very active with various charities such as The Wicklow hospice, is a patron of GOAL & an ambassador for fighting blindness.
He enjoys reading & playing golf. On joining the RuckingBall.com revolution Shane said ‘ It’s a great opportunity to give something back to the game. I like the idea of giving access to a wider group of people rather than just doing some individual coaching. The Ruckingball website will really help parents who are looking to give their child the best support they can. Rugby is booming in Ireland and you mustn’t forget Rugby is the nations 4th most popular sport so a lot of parents don’t now where to get good advice’
