'I lived out in the sticks in Athenry. Two donkeys outside, free potatoes'

The 42

3 days ago

MOST PLAYERS WHO move to Connacht live in Galway, but Ciaran Booth isn't like every other rugby player.
He marches to his own beat, literally. 25-year-old Booth, who now plays in Sydney with top Shute Shield club Easts, is the drummer in an indie rock band called The Monday Night Club. They've got a couple of EPs on Spotify.
One of Booth's biggest goals in life is to cycle around the world. The former Ireland U20 international has a lively Instagram account called Ciaran Does Things, where he shares some of his outdoor adventures.
So it's no surprise that he ended up living somewhere a bit different when he spent three-and-a-half years with Connacht, who he joined in 2020.
'I lived out in the sticks in Athenry,' says the affable, outgoing Booth as he sits in a restaurant in Bondi Junction.
'The lads used to always rip me for it. It was a bungalow with two donkeys outside, some chickens, a turf fire, free potatoes, free eggs. Rent was €500 a month and it was only 20 minutes to Galway.
'I'd train all day with the lads in Galway but by the time I got to 3 o'clock, I was ready for some quiet time.'
Nowadays, back row Booth and his girlfriend, Lucy, are living in the hustle and bustle of Bondi Beach, one of the busiest suburbs you could find. He sometimes misses the peace of Athenry, the greenery of Ireland, and its people, but rugby and life in Sydney are good.
Easts, the defending champions, are sitting clear at the top of the Shute Shield with one more round to go until the play-offs. They'll be hard to dethrone.
Booth reckons those years in Galway were the best of his life so far. He won five senior caps for the province and loved learning from coaches like Mossy Lawler, Cullie Tucker, and Eric Elwood.
Booth is a native of Manchester and initially came through the academy with Sale Sharks, but he has Irish blood from his dad's side of the family. Booth's granny is from Ballinasloe in County Galway and his granddad hails from Strandhill in Sligo.
Booth's parents have a house in Strandhill, so they would visit three or four times a year when Ciaran was growing up. Back then, Flybe used to fly direct from Manchester to Strandhill.
Booth played for Connacht five times. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
So as Booth was making his way in Sale, he came onto the radar of the Irish Exiles, although he nearly missed his chance when Wayne Mitchell, the Exiles' talent ID officer at the time, came to watch him play.
'Wayne came to one of my Sale games and I didn't know who he was,' recalls Booth with a laugh.
'He was like, 'How are you doing? Good to see you.' I just said, 'Good, cheers, see you later' and walked off.
'Thankfully, he got my number and called me a few days later!'
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Booth had been focused on playing for England, but he missed out on their U18s to his bitter disappointment, just before the Irish door opened. Given his roots, it made sense and he was soon playing for the Ireland U18s.
He jumped swiftly to the U19 side and then got a late call-up to Noel McNamara's Ireland U20 squad for the World Cup in 2019, despite still being a year young, after Scott Penny was ruled out injured.
Things were suddenly accelerating for Booth as he joined the likes of Craig Casey, Ryan Baird, and Thomas Clarkson at the tournament in Argentina. He came off the bench in a win over England.
'That was like childhood trauma cured,' says Booth. 'That was a massive release, a very special moment.'
David Nucifora, the IRFU's performance director at the time, spoke to Booth about a potential move to one of the Irish provinces. And then, the next day against Italy, Booth started at openside. He jackaled at an early breakdown. Disaster struck.
Anyone who saw Booth's horrific knee injury at the time can probably still remember it. The first Italian player tried to croc roll him and fell to Booth's left, dragging at him as he fought to stay on his feet. Then, a couple of seconds later, the second Italian player thundered in at full speed completely from the side on his right. Booth's left knee folded.
'I can still hear it,' he says with a wince. 'It sounded like a Coke can getting crunched.'
Booth had always been diligent with his injury prevention work. He rarely had injuries. But there is no prehab that can have prevented a horror injury like this.
'It's the most painful thing you've ever felt. It's the sudden realisation of, 'Oh shit, this is what it feels like, this is happening.
'My first thought… you could hear me on the ref mic, saying, 'No, no, no, no.' You just know a year of your life is gone.'
Booth playing for Buccaneers in the AIL. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
The knee was mangled, says Booth. His ACL was ruptured. His MCL was ruptured. His PCL was ruptured. There was severe LCL damage, too.
Some might have feared that it would be the end of rugby, but Booth just got busy getting better. He needed two operations, including an allograft for his PCL, which involves using a dead person's ankle ligament as a replacement.
It took Booth 18 months, or 547 days, to make his return and it came for the Connacht Eagles against Leinster A.
Nucifora and the IRFU kept faith in Booth after his injury and there was a chance he could have moved to Ulster, but Connacht was the right fit.
'Once you get back, you're like, 'Shit, I've got to get good again,'' says Booth.
He raves about his time in Connacht, where he spent two seasons with the academy and then moved onto a senior deal for the 2022/23 season, during which he played twice in the URC and three times in the Challenge Cup.
'Just the smallest details were all they cared about when I was in the academy,' says Booth. 'It wasn't about the big picture.
'Andy Murphy, one of the S&C coaches at Connacht, always used to say, 'I'm not training you to be the best rugby player this weekend when you play in AIL. I'm training you to be the best rugby player in five years' time.'
'Mossy and the lads were just relentless every single day, sessions nailing the basics, catch-pass, breakdown, everything.
'You can see it the whole way up the chain to the Irish team, the smallest details, the tiniest little things like catching your passes square, keeping your feet in the breakdown, you can see where it all comes from. And it works.'
Booth reckons he might settle down in Ireland when he's done with the adventures. He still chats to the crew in Connacht and Cathal Forde recently stayed with him on a visit to Sydney, payback for when Booth used to sleep on Forde's couch after nights out in Gaklway.
He was saddened to be released by Connacht in 2023 and his time with Jersey Reds in the English Championship was short-lived because they folded soon after Booth joined.
He ended up playing for Caldy in the Championship and then back with Sale as injury cover.
Booth is now playing in Sydney with Easts. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
The connection to Sydney was former Munster centre Alex McHenry, who was also in Jersey when the club went into liquidation and then won the Shute Shield with Easts last year before moving to Melbourne.
Living in Bondi had an obvious appeal.
As well as playing for Easts this year, Booth is coaching rugby at a school called Waverley College and leading strength classes at 98 Gym in Bondi.
But this is not a permanent step out of full-time professional rugby for Booth. The Shute Shield is high-quality and Booth mentions how the likes of Cormac Daly have jumped from the club competition into Super Rugby in the recent past.
Booth is also keeping his ear to the ground for any pro chances in France, the US, and Japan.
'It has been a complete breath of fresh air here, rugby-wise,' says Booth.
'Everyone's super competitive, the coaches are really good, and I'm more fired up for games and training than I've been in a long time.
'Now, I just want to play professional rugby. I'm at the point now where if I don't play for Ireland, which was always the goal, but if that doesn't happen, I'll live.
'You never know, there's people that come back at 30 and get back in, shit happens, but now I just want to play professional rugby at the highest standard I can.'
Whatever comes next, it seems unlikely to be boring.
Ciaran does things differently.