MY RUGBY WORLD

The TNT Sports presenter on pigs' feet, pranking Sam Warburton and what makes a perfect pundit

- WITH CRAIG DOYLE

How did you get into rugby? Watching my dad play for St Mary's RFC in Ireland. I don't remember what level it was but I know he won a cup and a Leinster title. I have a faint memory from the same time of being in the old Lansdowne Road but I was in a pushchair. Ireland were playing Argentina.

We were a big rugby family, so I was brought up in the rugby club. Big pots of crubeens – pigs' feet. My mum and family friend Eva were in charge of them. We'd be in the club ballroom kicking plastic orange balls about.

Who was your rugby hero? I see him all the time, Tony Ward. I loved him. Back in the day you were either an Ollie Campbell or a Tony Ward household. We were a Ward house. He lives quite close to me, so I see him out walking and we've played golf.

I've seen him in the gym too and I trained with him. I told him that if I could have had a Tony Ward poster back in the day, I would have had one on my wall! That freaked him out a bit.

Did you have a match-day routine when you played? Well, I remember my first-team debut. It was for North Kildare against De La Salle Palmerston. Some of my mates came to watch and I threw up before the game.