Woods denied chance to flourish

Eight caps, 28 years of age, seriously quick and gifted. Four years as a professional, and then a knee injury ended his career, denying him about four or more good years. Among the litany of victims of the guinea-pig years, Niall Woods' tale is no worse than many of his contemporaries, but he was still cut off in his prime.

He's entitled to feel slightly bitter, although like others such as Conor McGuinness, Brian Carey, David Corkery and Conor O'Shea, he can always point to the most unfortunate of them all, Ciaran Scally, who was forced to retire at 21 after just two Tests. No doubt like all of these players, Woods can unhesitatingly recall the day when his career stalled - September 18th, 1999, guesting for the Premiership All-Stars against England as part of the latter's World Cup preparations at Twickenham.

"I got caught between two guys and was twisted in the double tackle," he recalls. "I was trying to avoid contact," he adds with a typically self-deprecating chuckle. "At first the pain went away and I carried on. But a few minutes later I was chasing a chip through and I knew straight away it was serious from the pain and the noise it made when it tore."

He saw a surgeon on the Monday, and even without a scan Woods was told he'd torn his cruciate ligaments. As it transpired, the scan also revealed he had "completely ruptured the alterior cruciate ligament, stretched the medial collateral ligament and ripped all the lining off the joints".

It would be a largely fruitless route back. The first operation was on October 15th, 1999, the second on March 20th last year, then came the move to Harlequins in the summer of last year. On October 28th he played his first game in over a year as a replacement in a European Shield game against Dax, and started another dozen.

But the doubts nagged at him. Against Sale Woods was "caught badly from behind. I thought my knee was going to go again. It was quite scary at the time." Whatever about the knee, there was, he admits, "damage to my head", which reached its nadir in a game against Northampton. "Someone sidestepped me, and I felt embarrassed. I wasn't getting through gaps, or if I was, then I was getting half caught."

There were some good games, but due to compensating for his previous injuries, other injuries surfaced and in another Shield match away to Perpignan "I couldn't actually run properly". Another scan revealed he'd torn his cartilage again. A third operation followed, on February 14th, 2001, before his surgeon informed Woods last June he had an arthritic knee. "I could play again but if I did I would probably be limping within a year. So it (retirement) wasn't too hard a decision to make, though obviously it wasn't a nice one."

It wasn't a bad innings, all told, but it could have been a longer one. "I'd only just turned 28 when the injury happened and I'd just had my best season ever," says Woods in reference to a fourth campaign with London Irish that had yielded 25 tries in 29 games, and over 350 points.

He's entitled to a few grievances. "I think the only rugby player who has come back from this injury is (Dan) Luger. Lots of soccer players, like (Roy) Keane and (Niall) Quinn, have had it but didn't play again for at least nine months whereas I was back playing in five months." Regrets? "My only regret is that I didn't have more caps. I had quite a lot of talent and I look at other players who don't have as much but have achieved more. It was down to circumstances really. You just need luck - the right place at the right time."

Woods was more often in the wrong place at the wrong time it seems, specifically the grim mid-1990s. Of his eight caps, two were against Australia, two against England, two against France and two against Wales (yielding one try and two wins).

Of all the injustices meted out to Woods, the biggest was perhaps his crass exclusion from the 1995 Irish World Cup squad. Darragh O'Mahony, then with UCD and capped just once against Italy, was surprisingly picked but played only once - in the quarter-final mauling by France.

Woods was 23 and in good nick at the time. This writer recalls him responding to his exclusion the next day by scoring four tries for Blackrock against Young Munster in Stradbrook. "With a very severe hangover," he reveals. It should have been five but the referee ruled that a try-scoring pass from Brendan Mullin had been forward. "I was gutted at the time but I'd had a shocker against France and basically that cost me."

Despite his acute disappointment it was a timely two-fingered riposte and underlined that Ireland had denied themselves a real weapon at the World Cup. Save for Simon Geoghegan, Woods was the quickest and best finisher available until the emergence of Denis Hickie, and would have revelled in ground conditions in South Africa.

That he didn't win more than eight caps was probably down to his oft-criticised defence. "The only people who had a problem with it were in Ireland, because I got tagged when I was young. I'm not saying I was an outstanding tackler but being on the wing it gets highlighted more."

It was, he says, one of the reasons he joined London Irish in the summer of 1996. He still retains the Zurich Premiership record of 32 points in a game, scoring two tries and landing 10 kicks out of 10 against Harlequins in April 1998.

Woods admits he misses the recognition and can barely bring himself to watch a game yet. Still, he's working in the commercial end of the Professional Rugby Players' Association, is "enjoying getting some experience back in the business world again", and along with his girlfriend has bought a house in Kingston. He's also coaching the London Irish under-17s.

What he enjoyed most about playing rugby was "scoring tries, beating people and the adrenalin of playing in front of a big crowd". Ask him how he'd like to be remembered, and he says: "Someone who entertained, who tried to make things happen. It came off a lot of the time, and sometimes didn't as well."

He did that and more, and better than most we've ever had.

gthornley@irish-times.ie