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The Matt Hampson Interview: Ireland legend Keith Wood on the future
The best hooker of his generation, Ireland's legendary talisman talks about life after rugby, memorable Lions tours and his long-term plans to return to rugby
Friday 17th of October
Matt Hampson: Keith Wood, aka Uncle Fester!
Keith Wood: That's very kind!
MH: What are you up to these days?
KW: I have a real variety; I obviously have media work, so I work for the BBC and write for the Daily Telegraph and Irish Newspapers. I'm involved in a radio station over in Ireland as well and I've a property company - I've worked at that for a long time - and I still do some ambassadorial work for RBS and Bushman's Whiskies and for a couple of Irish companies as well. So I'm pretty full on with work.
MH: When you retired from the game, did you ever think about taking up a coaching role?
KW: I didn't really, I was lucky in some ways in that I'd worked for a bank for five or six years early on before the game went professional and I had worked at business whilst I was playing which I enjoyed. I set up a PR company effectively to look after my own issues and my own commercial projects that I wanted to work on. I was very happy with the idea of going into business, I wasn't mad about going into rugby as it had been so much of my life for so long and I wanted to step away from it. I never doubted I'd go back into it and will go back into it. I've three young sons and if they decide they want to play rugby well then I'd like to try and help them out as much as I could. And I've no issue dealing with guys who might have a problem with elements of their game and talking through it. But the thought of donning a tracksuit everyday - it just didn't appeal to me.
MH: You had a long and distinguished career in the game, what would you say are your highlights?
KW: Well, playing for the Lions was phenomenal; winning in '97 in South Africa was brilliant. Even the tour in 2001, even though we lost the series, was an incredible experience.
I remember being told by an older player early on that after a period of time, 10 matches or so, every international you play is just another match, but I never felt that. Every chance I got to represent my country I thought it was just a magnificent thing to be able to do and I loved it. So I look at virtually all those international matches I played in as highlights and, you know, we didn't win regularly until the latter half of my career and it was sometimes really, really hard but it was still an honour and a responsibility and I loved it for that.
MH: You mentioned the Lions in 1997 and next summer they return to face the Springboks who are world champions again. What do you think about the tour and who do you see as the main contenders for your old No.2 shirt?
KW: Looking at it from this far out, virtually anything could happen - there's a good few guys in contention. I had an objection to Clive Woodward's policy in 2005 (Lions tour to New Zealand) - the idea of bringing so many players and so many coaches and sort of separating the teams up, I thought went against the ethos of the Lions. And there was an awful lot of guys who went who I felt shouldn't have really gone.
You know, the Lions are supposed to be the cream of the crop, not the whole crop. Virtually everyone who played in Britain and Ireland with the exception of very few players got picked and I think that's the wrong way to do it. It's hard because it needs to go on form, it needs to go on attitude and I think this time the guys have gone back to the old ethos. Gerald Davies [Lions manager] looks on it like the old Lion he is; you have to be honest to get the jersey, it is not a right.
So at the moment I don't know who will be top dog or who will be there as hooker because a lot depends on what happens before Christmas.
Even though a lot of people look at the Six Nations and see those as the main matches, guys put down a proper marker in the Heineken Cup but mainly the autumn internationals in November. You get a great idea from these matches who will end up being involved.
MH: What do you think about the current state of the game, particularly with the introduction of the new rules this year?
KW: I'm one of the few who agreed with the fact that there needed to be some changes. People were saying that everything was fine. Well it wasn't fine; there have been some matches that have been magnificent but the last World Cup was dominated by kicking for the most part, and that's not necessarily right. It's hard for the traditionalists but changes needed to be made. Some things you have to make sacrosanct; the scrum must be sacrosanct, it's a great battle and it sets the marker for a lot of games.
MH: As a former hooker what do you make of the lineouts?
KW: I think the lineouts should all be full lineouts, I don't think there should be any shortened ones, because then it would get everyone in the one spot and that would help in that there would be no need to over concentrate on defence at the back - no chopping and changing would be needed. Calling numbers was a farce as a penalty because each time you spend time looking at their numbers - who's in, where are they, what's the story? It's easier if everyone is in the lineout and you just throw it in and guys jump.
MH: You obviously played under Martin Johnson for the Lions. How do you think he will go as a coach?
KW: I don't think he will be that much of a coach, if that makes sense, because the term 'coach' takes on many different meanings. He is almost a manager, a manager of coaches and very much along the lines of a soccer manager.
When a few journalists said he didn't have the right experience to do the job, I said he has in spades what coaches spend 30 years trying to get, and that is the respect of the players. The guy knows the game, he knows it very well, he demands and commands respect and he gets it.
He's a smart guy, so rather than make the presumption that he can do everything, he'll get the right guys in to do the job. And I don't see bad things happening for him to be honest. He was the best captain I ever played under and I have a huge amount of respect for him and he was a phenomenal player too which often gets left by the wayside.
In the last three or four years of his career he developed an angle of running from outside to in, running from almost the centres to take the short ball. He did it because he needed to become a ball carrier but he didn't have the pace to take it straight on. He developed his own, trundling run, building up a head of steam before hitting contact and it worked.
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