Former Ireland rugby international Keith Wood has revealed that being involved in training his local GAA club left him both loving it and frustrated at the same time.

It is well documented that the Clare native was always a ken follower of hurling and indeed he donned the Banner jersey at under-16 level before concentrating on his hugely successful rugby career.

This week, Wood and former Clare hurler Brian Lohan amongst others who were inducted into the University of Limerick Hall of Fame.

And Wood spoke in length about his time as strength and conditioning coach with his local club Smith O'Brien's which he admitted he enjoyed a great deal, but one thing did graw on him and that was the scheduling of fixtures.

"I enjoyed it a lot," the Clare Champion reports Wood as saying. "Although I found some of it frustrating. I had been out of hurling an awful long time.

He added: "I did some strength and conditioning, I was only going to give eight or nine days with them but I ended up staying for the whole season because I loved it.

"I enjoyed it but got frustrated with the erratic nature of the season. That just doesn't happen in rugby. To be honest the last 30 years of my life have been rugby orientated. I couldn't get my head around the fact that you could have a championship match and then you might have to wait three months for the next one. That just doesn't any sense to me.

"I found it hard. I thought Smith O'Brien's were really fit, in really good shape and had discipline but then you had no match for eight weeks. By the time the matches came around, three or four players had emigrated. That's very tough. I'm not standing from the outside criticising another sport but I found that to be a frustration for me. But I do love it and want to see Clare win all the time."

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