Ireland’s most capped forward talks about kicking in a neighbour’s door, the abuse he endured for being a Protestant captain and the insecurities that drove him on
“It was another one of those nights and I went in to the local chicken shop, as you do,” Rory Best says as he remembers a drunken time long before he won the first of 124 Test caps. Despite being a Protestant from Ulster, and a man once derided for his background and body shape, Best captained Ireland 38 times, with his final game being the World Cup quarter-final defeat against New Zealand last year. He is the most capped forward in Irish rugby history, and only Brian O’Driscoll and Ronan O’Gara have played more times for Ireland. But I like the fact that Best can bring us back to a Belfast chicken shop – from where, in his early 20s, he stumbled home and caused unintentional havoc.
Related: Ireland’s calling: a journey to the heart of a rugby powerhouse | Donald McRae
Written by Donald McRae
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/mar/22/rory-best-ireland-played-hard-partied-hard-change-protestant under the title “
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