Ian Madigan walked on to the RDS pitch to the acclamation of the crowd, something he’d dearly love to experience one more time as a player. He was in his civvies, part of the Leinster old boys with former head coach Joe Schmidt. They paraded on the pitch at half-time during the win over the Glasgow Warriors to acknowledge the back-to-back Heineken Champions Cup winning squads of 2011 and 2012.
This weekend he’d happily risk the wrath of the locals to wear the white of Ulster when Dan McFarland’s side visit the Dublin venue for a top of the table United Rugby Championship clash. Unfortunately, injury means that he won’t be available to play again until the new year.
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It was nice to catch up with his old team-mates. “It was surreal being back. It was very special,” Madigan said.
“Like any reunion you have a bit of anxiety, guys that I hadn’t seen for five or six years, [I] was wondering where do I stand with some of these guys? It is a feeling that a lot of people have going back to a 10-year reunion.
“I was reassured very quickly of the bond we have, what we created back in those two years; winning the Heineken Cup back-to-back was so special. Five minutes after meeting the guys the noise levels in the room lifted. It was just a special day.
“It’s a bond that you can’t really replicate in any other area of life, or any other business. The Q&A was the highlight for me. Joe Schmidt was obviously at the centre of it. We had a few players trying to settle old scores. Joe usually being the ultimate professional decided to park that and had a few chips back which was very entertaining.”
Madigan will be 34 years old in March and is in his 14th season as a professional. He’s got to have a dual focus, the short-term goal of getting back on the pitch as a player, while at the same time taking steps to secure a post rugby career. He “barely made 100 minutes” as a player last season. There will be a rugby decision to be made by the end of the season, but he has started to explore a life outside of sport.
“I’ve been very lucky, two of the guys I was in school with run a business called Dataships, they’ve allowed me to work one day a week and they’ve allowed me to go in on my down day and do a half-day, do some work in the evenings with them,” Madigan said.
“They’ve been able to educate me on a potential role that I could go into with them. I wouldn’t rule out staying the game, coaching in some capacity.
“It’s not that I don’t have unfinished business. I am very comfortable with what I have achieved. I still have an ambition to do more in the game. I think it is hard when you have someone like Johnny [Sexton] ahead of you but he is also older than you.
“While I am very envious of the position he is in, he is a great motivator. To see that he is still leading Leinster and Ireland is incredible.”
As someone who competed with Sexton for the number 10 jersey in Leinster and Ireland, Madigan offers an interesting insight into his former teammate’s longevity, enduring excellence and ability to consistently produce marquee performances at Test and club level.
“It’s [more] power to him [Sexton] because his ability to be able to adapt his game along the way is something he doesn’t get enough credit for,” Madigan said.
“He had a certain playing style when I was with Leinster. There were certain weeks that Joe would go with my style, or Johnny’s style, or we would play alongside each other.
“That was great but Johnny’s ability to adapt his game from a strategic and a strength and conditioning point of view as he has got older has been phenomenal and he has been a leader from the strategy point of view. The way Leinster and Ireland play, you can see a lot of teams starting to copy that now, but they were the first to play that style and he has been at the centre of that.”
Madigan is adamant that Ireland needs to find an outhalf who will genuinely compete with Sexton rather than simply fulfil a role of backup.
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Returning to Saturday’s game at the RDS, Madigan explained that he has begun to see parallels and a similar mindset from his experience of Leinster’s success in Ulster’s recent growth under McFarland.
“It was the hunger of the older players; the likes of Drico [Brian O’Driscoll], Darce [Gordon D’Arcy], Shaggy [Shane Horgan], Shane Jennings, Leo Cullen... their hunger to win more and that sense that their careers weren’t fulfilled. I look at Stu McCloskey, Luke Marshall, Iain Henderson, John Cooney, Rob Herring – guys who have been at Ulster a long time – they’ve an insatiable appetite to win.
“At Leinster, that married up nicely with that blend of youth and what came with that was bullet proof confidence and an ability to back it up. Ulster have that now, you look at some of the young lads who have broken through; the likes of Nathan Doak, James Hume, Mike Lowry, Rob Baloucoune; even Tom Stewart this year who has been fantastic.
“We’ve got guys coming through who are chomping at the bit. [On Saturday] 15 on 15, either team could win. I don’t think Ulster had that in the past, but it’s the first time Dan [McFarland] has the strength in depth to rotate and compete in both competitions. I think this is going to be our year that we get some silverware.” He, more than most, knows what that looks like.
