ruck wrote: it had to happen eventually.
One of Ireland's best ever players (that I've seen at least). An absolute physical freak of nature.
Very sad to see him go. One of my favourites.
What he said..........phenomenal physical specimin and smart,skilful player, quite unfortunate with injuries.....a real quality player.
What a family eh, 3 lions in different positions....
One of my favourite players and he'll be sadly missed. Such a pity it ends this way for him. He looked in great shape in the (admittedly it was very brief) game against England and was brilliant in the 6N last year too. For a guy in his position to still be going so strong was just incredible, he's a freak.
Why is he retiring? Did the injury just never heal properly? Was hoping he'd have one last season.
The image I have of him is the way he used to receive the ball from a kick off and then run through/around the opposition as if he was playing an u-14s match.
He was an unbelievably good defender and had great smarts as well but it's his physical attributes that will live long in the memory.
Very sad news to hear alright. He was a fine player for Munster, Ireland and The Lions. As was said above, remarkable family for 3 brothers to have toured with the Lions. He will be missed in both Red & Green.
'VJ Singh hits more balls than Elton John's chin' - David Feherty
ruck wrote: it had to happen eventually.
One of Ireland's best ever players (that I've seen at least). An absolute physical freak of nature.
Very sad to see him go. One of my favourites.
Same as that.
Heard he was done when I was down for the game in Thomond from some Munster heavy hitters. I was surprised when he tried to make a comeback.
Even as "An absolute physical freak of nature" he was knocking on and was always going to struggle to regain form and fitness at his age.
An alltime great player in red and green and a thoroughly decent bloke as well.
Wally was an absolutely brilliant player – definitely my favourite Munster player of the last decade. The guy was all class on the pitch – brilliant athlete, brilliant competitor, brilliant rugby player and a real gent. Sorry to see him go out with an injury, but he's had a hell of a career and was still playing good rugby at 35 years old. You can't ask for too much more than that.
Wally was a brilliant player, a proper ball carrier and a teak tough defender. Handy at the tail of the line out too. He also tended to be given a lot of latitude by refs which is a handy attribute for a 7. He should have won far more caps but was mysteriously stymied for years by the myopic EOS. I often wonder how his career would have turned out had he been left at No.8 instead of the one dimensional Leamy.
Wally was a genuine world class back-row. It all seemed fairly effortless to him. Don't think he ever even grimaced - he just had this non-plussed expression on his face when he was ploughing through the tackles. I remember a former irish speed coach telling me he was the quickest player in the Irish squad over 3 of the 5 distances that they regularly tracked (this was about 4 years ago).
He had a sensational carry in the England game in Twickenham a few year back (when shaggy won it in the corner), where he must have made 50 metres breaking 4 or 5 tackles, wonder if it is youtubed at all?
Disappointing as it was to see the likes of Fla go, this is much sadder to me. Such an athlete and such a gentleman too. Quietly went around the field busting tackles and making it all look so easy. Irreplaceable.
Also a shame we'll never see Seanie, One F and Wally playing in a back row together. Not the most balanced combination but would have been fun to watch those three freaks going to work!
Munsterboy wrote:Also a shame we'll never see Seanie, One F and Wally playing in a back row together. Not the most balanced combination but would have been fun to watch those three freaks going to work!
Had Wallace not got injured just before the World Cup I don't doubt that we would in fact have seen that. He had hit flying form before that injury which eventually ended his career. Still, what a career he had.
it had to happen eventually.
