Kerry GAA star to play rugby

chupacabra

The Kerry Captain Darran O'Sullivan is to switch codes for the current off-season and will play rugby for Tralee RFC. Being a Tralee man myself i would look forward to seeing how this experiment plays out. O'Sullivan has very good pace and handling but id say he'll get a shock to the system physicality wise. Never know, maybe he will pull on the red of munster someday

Hyperbullet

chupacabra wrote: »

The Kerry Captain Darran O'Sullivan is to switch codes for the current off-season and will play rugby for Tralee RFC. Being a Tralee man myself i would look forward to seeing how this experiment plays out. O'Sullivan has very good pace and handling but id say he'll get a shock to the system physicality wise. Never know, maybe he will pull on the red of munster someday

Should be interesting to see how he does. Didnt Donaghy play rugby at one point as well? Tomás O Leary is probably the most recent successful GAA to rugby convert.

PhatPiggins

chupacabra wrote: »

The Kerry Captain Darran O'Sullivan is to switch codes for the current off-season and will play rugby for Tralee RFC. Being a Tralee man myself i would look forward to seeing how this experiment plays out. O'Sullivan has very good pace and handling but id say he'll get a shock to the system physicality wise. Never know, maybe he will pull on the red of munster someday

I hope he get mullered to be honest. Listening to his interview "I've agreed in principle to play for Tralee" you'd swear he was signing for Toulouse.

FridaysWell

chupacabra wrote: »

The Kerry Captain Darran O'Sullivan is to switch codes for the current off-season and will play rugby for Tralee RFC. Being a Tralee man myself i would look forward to seeing how this experiment plays out. O'Sullivan has very good pace and handling but id say he'll get a shock to the system physicality wise. Never know, maybe he will pull on the red of munster someday

GAA 'star'

Glory wannabe. . .:rolleyes:

Godd luck to him though

Orizio

Excellent stuff, here's hoping he changes full-time to Rugby, stop getting in the way of Cork winning All-Irelands.

zenmonk

Donal Linehan had scouted him for Munster as a young lad, he actually played for London Irish underage and mini rugby.

Amazotheamazing

He's played underage for Tralee before, afaik, he's not a complete newbie. Actually, a fair few of that Kerry panel have played rugby at some level or other.

siltirocker

zenmonk wrote: »

Donal Linehan had scouted him for Munster as a young lad, he actually played for London Irish underage and mini rugby.

f*ck off, seriously!
:eek:

zenmonk

siltirocker wrote: »

f*ck off, seriously!
:eek:

Linehan said so on the last word Friday night.

thehighground

zenmonk wrote: »

Linehan said so on the last word Friday night.

I think he also said he played underage soccer for QPR. I bet he is a scratch golfer as well:D

musky

athleticly speaking he should be fine, even though the gaa football is played over a short time period, it seems to be of a high intensity.

as for the standard, junior rugby is slightly above average so he probably won't be found out skills wise esp if he had an underage grounding.

(to back my standard comment up, i saw leinster u-20s with no ail exp players, they were all fresh out of school put over 60 points on navan, who were the all ireland junior champions and who would subsequently be promoted to division 3 ail)

Its the discipline that could be a concern, gaa players seem to spend a lot of time with off the ball stuff (not to say that he is like that)

I seem to remember Graham Geraghty (meath) trying something similar a few years back, i wonder how it turned out?

realisticly though, athletes specialise in one sport for a reason.

Michael Jordan - incredible at basketball, atrocious at baseball

I know there are dual star gaa players for both the football and hurling, but as gaa is not a world sport we can't compare them to other sports

murphym7

thehighground wrote: »

I think he also said he played underage soccer for QPR. I bet he is a scratch golfer as well:D

Don't you hate fella's like that (Spoken by below average rugby player, poor soccer player and awful golfer)

Ceartgoleor

musky wrote: »

I seem to remember Graham Geraghty (meath) trying something similar a few years back, i wonder how it turned out?

Graham Geraghty attempted to play for Buccaneers in the AIL. I was playing for them myself at the time-he scored a try with his first touch of the ball in a j1 match, but was badly shown up in defence, and positioning for kicks etc. He said at the time it was a completely differenct style of fitness required to what he'd been used to (eg short sharp sprints by comparison to the constant movement required in his old role for Meath).

Tim Robbins

Ceartgoleor wrote: »

Graham Geraghty attempted to play for Buccaneers in the AIL. I was playing for them myself at the time-he scored a try with his first touch of the ball in a j1 match, but was badly shown up in defence, and positioning for kicks etc. He said at the time it was a completely differenct style of fitness required to what he'd been used to (eg short sharp sprints by comparison to the constant movement required in his old role for Meath).

There's a huge pyschological difference between Rugby and GAA, the way you have to take a hit, tackle and protect yourselves in rucks. Also the lines and angles you run are completly different.

J1 is a good standard and he did well to make it that far.

WithCheesePlease

Diarmuid O'Sullivan (former Cork hurling full-back) is playing rugby for Highfield now apparently. No idea how he's getting on or if he's still at it though.

Met him in Sale last year after the Munster Sale HEC game while we were having a street kick about with a rugby ball I had lifted from the game! Good craic.

Eoin

zenmonk wrote: »

Donal Linehan had scouted him for Munster as a young lad, he actually played for London Irish underage and mini rugby.

I don't think that playing underage / mini rugby for LI means that much though?

thegen

thehighground wrote: »

I think he also said he played underage soccer for QPR. I bet he is a scratch golfer as well:D

And what wrong with QPR? Flying high in the Championsip now;)

Orizio

WithCheesePlease wrote: »

Diarmuid O'Sullivan (former Cork hurling full-back) is playing rugby for Highfield now apparently. No idea how he's getting on or if he's still at it though.

Met him in Sale last year after the Munster Sale HEC game while we were having a street kick about with a rugby ball I had lifted from the game! Good craic.

Diarmuid is still playing for Highfield, as a back, a full-back I believe.