Connolly and Foley ruined my Bath team

KEVIN MAGGS THE FORMER IRELAND, BRISTOL, BATH AND ULSTER CENTRE AND FORMER COACH OF MOSELEY

- Jon Newcombe

DESPITE my best efforts in alerting the Ireland selectors to my eligibility, it was a chance conversation between the then Bristol team manager Ralph Knibbs and Ireland head coach Brian Ashton that really set me on the path to what was an immensely enjoyable eight-year international career.

Before that, I’d sent a shoebox full of videos of my best clips with an accompanying letter to the IRFU but had heard nothing back. But luckily for me Brian had come down to the Mem to watch David Corkery, Paul Burke and Barry McConnell and while Ralph was sat next to him during the match, he said, “you do know that Kevin Maggs is qualified for Ireland, too?”

Luckily, we beat Sale and I scored and had a good game playing opposite Chris Yates. That match was on the Saturday, I was on standby on the Tuesday, called into the squad on the Thursday and by the weekend I was with the team in New Zealand. It was mad how it all happened so quickly. It was a boot camp-style trip, with really intense training every day but quite a few of us – people like Malcolm O’Kelly and Justin Bishop – came through it and out the other side and went on to be capped.

To play 70 times for Ireland, alongside greats of the game like Brian O’Driscoll, was unbelievable. I was actually on the wing when he got his famous hat-trick in Paris in 2000. We’d seen him before when he came in to training and was invited into camps and you knew straight away there was something special about him. The career he went on to have speaks for itself.