Shortly after Donncha O'Callaghan stepped onto the set of the Tommy Tiernan Show, sporting a considerably swollen left eye along with stitches, the host expressed surprise that O'Callaghan is still playing rugby.
The premise of the show is that Tiernan does not know in advance who his guests are going to. He thought O'Callaghan had retired.
"Most people have. I'm over in England so it's as good as gone, you know that way," replied O'Callaghan.
I was playing in Munster, played 17 years in Munster. I loved the place so much that I was starting to get to that point where I wasn't getting picked, there were younger guys coming up that needed to come through and I loved to too much to go out and start hating it. I knew that's the way it finishes if you stay around and hang around, you end up finishing really bitter and resentful. I've had too many good days to do that.
To be fair to them, they were good to me. They left me out of my contract and I signed with Worcester over in England.
Now 38, 39 in March, the second row has been with Premiership side Worcester Warriors for the past two years. His time there has been rewarding: last year he was named Player of the Season. He's also club captain.
'The fear is failure', @docallaghan4 talks about the highs and the lows of rugby on The #TommyTiernan Show.. pic.twitter.com/NXjRD3zBoS
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Still, he misses home, and particularly the fun. The English, he has found, are "no craic".
I miss it, I miss home; the English, they're no craic. Tommy, I'm serious - they're sound, they're really nice people, they're polite - there's no craic.
Would you come in for a week and do craic lessons? Can I just put it to you? Just sit a the bottom of the dressing room and have a look, like. There's nothing going on.
Tiernan joked that he stopped gigging in England for that reason.
"They don't see the wisdom in undermining what they see around them as much we do - poor English people do. I'm a great man for theories and offending people," said the comedian.
It was a theory in which O'Callaghan found reason.
"No you're right. None of the rugby lads are poor, they're all well to do. It's a different game over there."
You can watch the full interview on the RTÉ Player.
