It may come as news to some, but the first Irish player to win a Heineken Cup medal is Cork native Brian Roche after Bath’s success in 1998.
By Declan Whooley
While Munster and Leinster have enjoyed unprecedented success over the past decade, aside from Ulster’s victory in 1999, the early years of the competition were bleak for Irish sides. Hence why it often comes as a surprise that the unheralded Cork back was the first man to get his hands on the coveted silverware.
As a 22 year-old at Sundays Well, he was offered a trial at Bath in the summer of 1997, and made his mark to earn a deal.
This was even more impressive given that on the back of the successful Lions tour to South Africa, Bath had players of the stature of Jeremy Guscott, Mike Catt and Ieuan Evans returning to the club at the top of their game for what would be the first professional Premiership season.
Evans’ honeymoon gave him his chance, though he was realistic to know that when all players were available, he would not feature.
“So I got a shot – and I was lucky, I took it. But I was never going to hold on to it with these guys around,” he told The Irish Examiner.
In the 1997/98 season, Munster, Leinster and Ulster managed a paltry 10 points in total and failed to make the knock-out stages, with Roche featuring in the earlier pool games.
I do see it as an honour but it’s done now and I move on. I don’t talk about it
Bath overcame Brive by a solitary point in Bordeaux in the final, with fullback Jonathan Callard scoring a try, conversion and four penalties in a 19-18 win. Roche, for his part, watched that game with a few other colleagues in his apartment in England, but admits that the medal doesn’t hold much sentimental value.
“I saw my Heineken Cup medal as a token from Bath after being involved in the group stages and was happy to accept it and put it away then. I do see it as an honour but it’s done now and I move on. I don’t talk about it,” he later said.
In Heineken Cup action against Perpignan in the 1998/99 season
The following year he came back to Munster and played club rugby for Shannon. Despite being a regular in the side, he failed to make the Munster squad for the following year and that was the end of his provincial career.
He returned to play intermediate football for St. Finbarr’s in Cork, but made a comeback with Highfield, captaining the side to Championship success in 2004.
After earning a level two coaching badge with the IRFU, as well as a fitness qualification, he has put the likes of the St. Finbarr’s GAA side, the Highfield rugby team and UCC’s MSL soccer team through their paces, while he also was involved with the Cork hurlers for a period.
Irish players have picked up many winners’ medals in Europe’s premier competition in recent years, but it was the Cork man plying his trade in England that was the first to claim a medal and earn his own piece of history.
