Horgan calls time on his playing days

Bellewstown man Shane Horgan finally drew the curtain down on his rugby career after a long battle to regain fitness. Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Meath Chronicle last November Horgan was, at that stage, still hopeful that he would recover from a long-lasting and troublesome knee injury. The Bellewstown man saw a number of specialists around that time, but they merely confirmed his worst fears that he would have to sound the full time whistle on his playing career. Last week Horgan said that his main ambition now was to get back walking properly and without the pain that has become his constant companion since picking up the injury. Horgan grew up in Bellewstown and it was through his father John, who is from New Zealand, that the youngster first became interested in the oval ball game. His early rugby career was with Drogheda and Delvin, later to merge into Boyne RFC. He went on to play for Lansdowne before moving on to become one of the best known players for Leinster. He also had a spell on the Meath minor football team in 1996 and was on the side defeated by Dublin in a Leinster semi-final with Horgan scoring a point. Known widely as 'Shaggy' he recently completed a masters in law in Trinity College and he has also established himself as an accomplished media analyst on TV and radio. Horgan played his last competitive game for Leinster in the RaboDirect Pro12 final defeat by Munster at Thomond Park last May. He had spent much of the last year trying to recover from the injury, but finally admitted defeat and decided to hang up his boots. The 33-year-old three-quarters can look back on a highly eventful career in which he earned 65 international caps, his first against Scotland in 2000. Among the many good days he enjoyed in the green jersey was scoring a try against England at Twickenham in 2006 which helped Eddie O'Sullivan's side win the Triple Crown. Horgan will also be remembered for the touchdown he got against England in the historic victory at Croke Park in 2007. He also played in two World Cup campaigns in 2004 and 2007. He toured New Zealand with the Lions in 2005 winning three caps. Horgan made his Leinster debut against Ulster in 1998 and over 13 years playing for the province he made 207 appearances, scoring 71 tries. Among the many honours Horgan won with the province was two Celtic League crowns and two Heineken Cups. During the course of his career he has had his share of difficulties with injuries and in the lead up to the 2003 World Cup in Australia he was sidelined for nine months with a quadriceps muscle problem. A major disappointment for him was missing out on Ireland's 2009 Grand Slam success. However, he has enjoyed enough good days to make up for the bad. Speaking to the Meath Chronicle previously Horgan said that he had hoped to play for Duleek/Bellewstown before ending his football days. That now appears to be one ambition he will be unable to fulfil.