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Best farming his coaching potential in a Major League of his own
Former Irish captain eyeing less intensive career after playing transition
Former Ireland rugby captain Rory Best has teamed up with Specsavers to support its Healthy Hearing campaign, launched in celebration of important PRSI changes. To mark the new benefits, which see thousands of people qualify for free hearing aids at Specsavers, the opticians and audiologists has pledged to test and screen a quarter of a million people over the next two years. Photo: Dan Sheridan/Inpho
Two former Irish captains shared a flight home from an Irish international late last year and although the match they had witnessed initially consumed them, shared fatherhood soon occupied their thoughts.
Paul O’Connell told Rory Best how his removal from rugby’s unforgiving treadmill had afforded him more time with his kids; Best retold the story of how Ben, one of his three, had started crying when his dad suggested he might join Bristol Bears after finishing up with Ulster.
Instead, having undergone the usual retirement ritual of Grand Slam legends – write book, check; sit in pundit’s pulpit, check – they had wallowed in a life away from an exhaustive life.
And yet within weeks, O’Connell was plotting the resurrection of an Irish lineout while Best was in the coaching box helping Ulster ‘A’ to victory against Ulster.
Sometimes it’s impossible not to scratch the itch of an activity you’ve indulged in for most of a lifetime.
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He chuckles as you remind him of the words penned in his book in a week he hooks up with US Major League Rugby outfit Seattle Seawolves – “but I’m not a coach, and wouldn’t want to be a coach” – for nothing is ever set in stone when you’re busy making other plans in life.
Then again, the link with Enniskillen man and owner Adrian Balfour won’t necessarily see him on the training ground. So no tears in the Best household, then.
A toe-dipping exercise which, like in O’Connell’s case, can provide something of the former life he misses so much without thieving too much from his current one.
“I always said I wanted to stay in rugby,” explains Best. “I didn’t necessarily say I didn’t want to coach.
“And this is more consultancy, so it’s not straight-up coaching. I’m not there every single day. The press release almost made it sound like I was taking over as director of rugby which is not the case.
“There’s a lot going on in my head in terms of what I’d like to see rugby like. What I’m doing with Seattle is mainly Zoom talks with their coaches.
“I’ll review their game and do it mainly like how we reviewed games at Ulster and Ireland. I will look at small details they’re missing and almost coaching the coaches if you like, to see what high performance should look like in my opinion.
“So I’m not taking any sessions with the players, certainly not at present. And I’m not going over there. I’ve so much going on that I can’t afford to go over and come back to do the 10 days’ quarantine.
“But if Covid restrictions ease, and I can get out for a week and do a little bit with the coaches, set up something for them, and maybe the players as well. Ultimately, whenever I was playing, I certainly didn’t want to be a coach.
“Even now, I enjoy having my weekends back. At the same time, it’s also OK to change your mind a little bit and change your outlook on where you see yourself being in the future.”
The conflict is a familiar one for any recent retiree; initial giddiness at now having so much free time but the incipient anxiety as one realises there remains a void. The loss of Best’s vast accumulation of intellectual property may but be temporary; a post in the Ulster Academy, recently vacated by Kieran Campbell appeals to him.
At some stage, farming the next generation of Ulster beef in the front-row can augment his other passion of harming another kind of Ulster beef on his rolling green acres.
“It is something that I want to be involved in. The time constraints possibly would be too much for me at the minute.
“On the flip side of that, I do want to get myself involved in something that’s maybe more meaningful.
“The farm is great, don’t get wrong, it’s really great, but it’s very much a long-term project. Some of the stuff we’re doing now is a five-year project and I’m trying to get my head around it because I’m used to seven-day projects, not five-year projects.
“That’s where I can really enjoy being involved in the academy.
“It’s the same as working with Allen Clarke, or Kieran Campbell, they’re experienced coaches and we know each other well enough to be blunt. I found it really engaging and aspects of it were really rewarding.”
Irish Independent
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