By Irishexaminer.com,Ruth O’connor

Copyright irishexaminer

It’s off to various sports and activities — my eldest boy, 15, is big into golf, my daughter, 10, will have horse riding and dancing and my youngest boy, seven, will have soccer.

I’ll usually grab a coffee in Chill the Beans while my daughter is horse riding. I know people sometimes give out about having to drive their kids everywhere but I like it. We end up chatting about all sorts of things, finding out what their favourite songs are… it’s a great way to chat to the kids without asking direct questions.

I think you learn a lot from playing sports. You have all the obstacles — you lose matches, you don’t get picked for the team, you don’t play well, you’ve a coach that’s pushing you and telling you what to do, there’s great discipline… but there’s also great fun.

We might sit together for lunch. It’ll be something simple like soup and a sandwich, eggs and toast (if we haven’t had them earlier on) or leftovers. It’s really about fuelling people up in a healthy way.

If we’ve a bit of time, myself and my wife Emily might go for a walk. We live near the University of Limerick so it’s easy for us to walk along the Shannon and there’s a beautiful walk that goes through the university. In winter, there are all sorts of sports going on on the pitches too and there’s just a lovely atmosphere there.

There’s a nice gym close to the house so I might jump in there for 45 minutes, do a workout and have a coffee while I’m there. Since I’ve retired, people are always telling me I’ve lost weight. I’m a skinny guy naturally and always had to work hard throughout my career to keep size on. It’s not as much of a priority now. I definitely don’t eat or lift as much as I used to. An injury forced me to retire but I don’t have that many injuries post-playing.

We live in the suburbs of Limerick with our families nearby and there’s always people calling in with their kids and having a cup of tea or whatever so Saturday is quite a social day for us.

If the pressure is off and the kids are off playing I like to sit down with a cup of tea and watch one or two of the provinces’ matches.

Since the start of the summer, we’ve been having simple things for dinner like salad, boiled potatoes and meat. It’s so easy to eat out but when you’re barbecuing, it’s easy to eat in too.

I’m away with work for 13 weeks of the year so when I am home I try to be around as much as possible. When I’m away it’s tough on Emily with the kids so when I’m home I try to bring them to school, do a good bit of driving at the weekends… that’s the challenge of the job — you’re away a lot but it does allow you to be properly at home when you are there.

At this stage we probably stay in a lot more than we go out. There’s a lovely pub down the road called The Hurlers so sometimes myself and Emily might go down there for two or three drinks and walk back home — it’s nearly the walk down and the walk back that’s the most enjoyable part.

Most of the kids will be in bed by 9.30 or 10pm so then we’ll have a bit of time to ourselves to watch something.

I used to read a lot of sports biographies but now I like fiction. I find it hard to sleep if I don’t read and am trying to bring the book down to read during the day instead of going on my phone. I find it’s a great way to switch off.

Sleep is a big part of your fitness and recovery as a player and I remember reading somewhere that reading fiction before bed helps you to sleep better so even if I come in late at night I’ll still read a page or two. I’ll leave my phone downstairs too. Even the night before big matches I never had an issue sleeping. The only time I did was when I started coaching the Irish team. When I first started I was really nervous presenting to the team – it’s the only time in my life I ever remember struggling to sleep.

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