Paddy Wallace retires

awec

I think he deserves his own thread.

http://www.ulsterrugby.com/News/LatestNews/TabId/149/ArtMID/793/ArticleID/1513/Paddy-Wallace-to-retire-at-the-end-of-this-season-.aspx

Ulster’s all-time appearance record holder, Paddy Wallace, has confirmed that he will retire at the end of this season.

Buer

Sad to see him go. A vastly underrated player and inexplicably sneered at by some.

I'll remember his time at Leinster with fondness!

errlloyd

Never understood the stick he got. His performance against the Pacific Islands was almost record breaking.

mfceiling

errlloyd wrote: »

Never understood the stick he got. His performance against the Pacific Islands was almost record breaking.

I was at that game....he was great that day. A very under rated player - a great step and could read the game as well as anyone. If only for another certain number 13 he would have had a load more caps.

freyners

Always liked his style of play and wished he got more recognition by the larger masses for his talent. Find it unfortunate that the key memory most people have of his grand slam was his penalty concession v wales and not his warrior like performances in the first 3 games

Buer

mfceiling wrote: »

I was at that game....he was great that day. A very under rated player - a great step and could read the game as well as anyone. If only for another certain number 13 he would have had a load more caps.

If only we'd figured out how to use him before 2008!

So many wasted games at 15.

former legend

That's a real shame. Wallace deserved a lot more recognition than he got. Pity it all fizzled out so limply over the last 15 months.

awec

I think injury has forced his hand - a pity he didn't get to go out with a big send off.

danthefan

All the best to him.

skippymac6

Great servant. People forgot that he won the Junior World Cup as well back in the day....

Zzippy

Great player for Ulster and Ireland, should have got a load more caps, and a genuinely nice guy too. Wish him all the best whatever he does next...

SaveOurLyric

Buer wrote: »

A vastly underrated player and inexplicably sneered at by some.

Not sure thats quite true.
More of a sense of unfulfilled potential overhanging most of his career.

bilston

I think the biggest regret for Paddy will be that he didn't move to 12 earlier in his career. He started off as a very promising 10 and then unfortunately broke his leg and on his return was shoehorned in at FB with Humph obviously in possession of the 10 shirt.

I remember the game against the Borders when he came off the bench at 12 and from there he never looked back.

It was always going to be a tough ask for him to split up the D'Arcy/BOD partnership, that he did it at all is testament to him. He was a different player to D'Arcy of course and brought something different to the table. His style of play may have suited the current regime a bit more (not a criticism of anyone by the way.)

A great servant to Ulster and great to hear he is setting up a Rugby Academy as well.

Buer

SaveOurLyric wrote: »

Not sure thats quite true.
More of a sense of unfulfilled potential overhanging most of his career.

I don't think they're mutually exclusive.

Fireball07

A wonderful footballer.


Memories of him in the general public will be sullied by the unfortunate 10 situation for a few years as well as Kidney's liking of him as a back 3 sub....

UnitedWeStand

Another example of a player with too much potential for his own good. Shifted around too much, seemed to become seen as more of a squad player than a starter as a result. Still won near 50 caps though? End of the day he has a grand slam and a few triple crowns to his name, not bad.

Buer

Alas only 30 caps and 16 starting. He was unfortunate not to be identified as a 12 until later in his career, a position we had a world player of the year nominee in.

Podge_irl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2i9s9hCjwE

Good example of a try that would not have been scored with our other centre options.

He was a class player, I've never understood the antipathy towards him.

phog

He was one of my favourite players, massively underrated by some fans.

Best of Luck to him in whatever his future holds for him.

former legend

A rather unfortunate stat that perhaps sums up Wallace's early career is that he was in the squad for RWC 2003 but didn't actually make his international debut for another three years after that.

Cool_CM

UnitedWeStand wrote: »

End of the day he has a grand slam and a few triple crowns to his name, not bad.

Despite his best efforts on the day of course!

Micky Dolenz

Buer wrote: »

Sad to see him go. A vastly underrated player and inexplicably sneered at by some.

I'll remember his time at Leinster with fondness!

was he that underreated?

Always thought he was class myself. Most squads would have been glad to have him.

Always came across as a Gentleman. I wish him well in the future.

bilston

Cool_CM wrote: »

Despite his best efforts on the day of course!

He knew what he was doing! Any closer and Jones would have knocked it over so Paddy decided to give it away where he did rather than risk them getting any closer or getting into DG range.

Masterful really when you think about it...

postitnote

I just seem to recall in that six nations he seemed to do a lot of tackling with his face.

Buer

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

was he that underreated?
.

16 international starts in his career seems paltry for a guy of his ability.

He always took a bit of flak from fans too who claimed he was too small or too error prone to be on the team.

Only in his last few seasons, when he had slipped back out of contention and was destroyed by injury, did people tend to give him the credit he deserved.

sydthebeat

Buer wrote: »

16 international starts in his career seems paltry for a guy of his ability.

He always took a bit of flak from fans too who claimed he was too small or too error prone to be on the team.

Only in his last few seasons, when he had slipped back out of contention and was destroyed by injury, did people tend to give him the credit he deserved.

In fairness, he's 30 caps. 'Starts' is a bit of a disingenuous statistic too describe his international career when looking at his competition for his positions.

sydthebeat

Buer wrote: »

16 international starts in his career seems paltry for a guy of his ability.

He always took a bit of flak from fans too who claimed he was too small or too error prone to be on the team.

Only in his last few seasons, when he had slipped back out of contention and was destroyed by injury, did people tend to give him the credit he deserved.

In fairness, he's 30 caps. 'Starts' is a bit of a disingenuous statistic too describe his international career when looking at his competition for his positions.

Podge_irl

From what I recall a good few of his sub caps were 5 minute wonders (though I could be wrong). 30 caps is still a decent but not massive haul for a player of his talent.

Buer

sydthebeat wrote: »

In fairness, he's 30 caps. 'Starts' is a bit of a disingenuous statistic too describe his international career when looking at his competition for his positions.

I agree within reason. He had serious competition from D'Arcy but, even when D'Arcy wasn't around, he didn't always get the nod. He deserved to start ahead of D'Arcy also for a spell but didn't get the nod.

When D'Arcy broke his arm in 2008, Horgan came in and played 12 the next week. Wallace came into the side in the summer and did a great job in NZ but, come autumn, he was back on the bench and Fitzgerald started the autumn internationals at 12.

Going further back, we didn't even bring him to Japan in 2005 and started guys like Kevin Maggs and David Humphreys at 12 and 10 respectively, both in their thirties at that point.

Perhaps, it is disingenuous to use starts as a measure of his use but there's no doubt for me he should have had more and certainly more caps overall.

sydthebeat

I completely agree his was under rated and under utilised.