Search icon

Movies & TV

10th Oct 2014

Video: Second Captains revisited David O’Doherty’s schools rugby career this week and it was glorious

How about that for a tackle on Denis Hickie?

Conor Heneghan

How about that for a tackle on Denis Hickie?

David O’Doherty is well-known as one of Ireland’s funniest comedians but until this week few would have been aware of his sporting pedigree, apart from his bronze medal in the 1990 East Leinster under-14 triple jump competition, of course, which he likes to brag about in gigs occasionally.

O’Doherty was a guest on the first episode of the new series of Second Captains this week and as they do with the vast majority of their guests, the lads trawled through the archives to find vintage sporting footage of O’Doherty and it’s fair to say they hit the motherload.

O’Doherty was pretty modest about his sporting exploits but he was quite the rugby player in his youth, winning a Junior Cup medal with St. Michael’s in 1991, a campaign in which he scored a magnificent solo try and executed a textbook tackle on Denis Hickie that Hickie himself would have been proud of.

Who knows what O’Doherty might have gone onto achieve had comedy not come calling? Alas, it will remain as one of the great unanswered questions in Irish sport.

Excellent stuff as usual from the Second Captains lads; looking forward to more of the same in the season ahead.

Video via YouTube/RTE2

LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge