Shane Byrne
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James Shane Byrne (born Sunday 18 July 1971) is an Irish rugby union footballer. Byrne is one of few players from the amateur era still involved at international level. Aged: 36 (as of July 18th) He is nicknamed 'Munch' or 'Mullet' (a reference to his hair style).
A native of Aughrim, County Wicklow. He attended Blackrock College in Dublin, the alma mater of many Irish greats.
Despite playing as a professional rugby player for over 10 years, Shane has always kept working on the side and is a director with Arklow Waste Disposal, his family business. He is also head of operations for Focus International Property.
Shane is married to Caroline (a native of Co. Monaghan) and has twin girls Alex and Kerry who are nearly 5. They're moving home to Ireland three months early just so they can be the in the audience for their dad.
Apart from rugby, work and his family, Shane is driving his wife crazy by playing golf and "preparing for retirement". He describes himself in three words as "Hairy, stubborn and loyal". He plied his trade for many years at Leinster, where he was always considered a solid, highly effective and accurate thrower but nonetheless never given the recognition he was perhaps due. This lack of appreciation carried through to his international career which started comparatively late and which did not blossom until the retirement of Keith Wood. When eventually given his shot in a World Cup qualifier in Romania he grabbed it with both hands and became a fixture in the national side.
In 2005 he was honoured with selection to the British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand and his form on tour was such that he was selected for the first test. Unfortunately, a disastrous line-out performance, not all his fault, led to him losing his place for the second test to England's Steve Thompson. Due to injury Byrne, regained the No. 2 jersey for the third test. In being selected for two Lions tests, Byrne can now be regarded as one of Ireland's great hookers alongside Ronnie Dawson, Karl Mullen, Gordon Wood, Ken Kennedy, Ciaran Fitzgerald and Keith Wood. Shane has a total of three tries for his county, scoring twice in one match during wales in the 2004 six nations. He is one of the best hookers playing in Ireland at the moment and, having not fully retired from international rugby is sure to add to his 41 caps.
In the weeks following the Lions tour his contract talks with Leinster were inconclusive and he joined Saracens in the summer of 2005. After playing with Sarissons for two years he decided to return home and hoped to return to Leinster but they wouldn't take him on, something he's not happy about at all. He's now going back to club level to play for Blackrock, his old stomping ground.
Famous for playing Rugby for Leinster, Ireland and the British Irish Lions.
Shane first played for Leinster in '92 and last played with them in 2005. He was the most capped Leinster player until Reggie Corrigan pipped him by one last year. Shane wasn't impressed!
Shane holds 41 caps for Ireland, his first was an away against Romania and his last was a home against Romania so in a way he came full circle.
His proudest memories as a rugby player for Ireland were winning the triple crown, beating Oz for the first time and being in the world cup twice, in 1995 and 2003.
While he has had many injuries, he's never been seriously injured and claims its down to being small!
Shane is currently staring in Charity You're A Star edition on RTÉ in the Helix, DCU. He is lined up to sing Michael Bolton and get that mullet to bring in the votes. His chosen charity is GOAL, an Irish founded charity group. Shane is doing well in the talent/charity contest and most recently performed a resounding rendition of a classic Status Quo song. He is listed as one of the favourites to win the title.
He chose his charity GOAL because he has known John O'Shea ("the mad thing" as he says himself) for many years and hopes that they get a lot of exposure from the show. He is currently discussing the possibility of going to Calcutta to help them in September.
