Old Hand Finegan Has New Lease Of Life

…Owen Finegan…

A World Cup winner in 1999, Owen Finegan is experiencing a new lease of life at Leinster, and who could blame him after a pre-season of pushing cars and running up and down Killiney Hill.

The Sydney-born Finegan has seen it all in his lengthy career – he played 90 Super 12 matches for the ACT Brumbies, helping them to two titles (he captained them in their 2004 triumph) and scoring a Super 12 record 31 tries for a forward.

Comfortable at lock or in the back row, the 34-year-old battled through operations on both shoulders and ankle and knee reconstructions to have an enviable Test career with Australia. Having made his debut against Wales in 1996, he won a total of 56 caps with his most memorable moment coming in the 1999 World Cup final when he scored an injury-time try in the Wallabies’ 35-12 defeat of France.

Controversially left out of the Australian squad for the 2003 World Cup, Finegan continued to ply his trade with the Brumbies before signing a two-year deal with English side Newcastle Falcons last year. After a poor season, by his standards, he was released.

Leinster coach Michael Cheika, who played alongside Finegan at Sydney club Randwick, snapped him up and the player commonly known as ‘Melon’ was only too happy to join the province in the summer.

Happy to put his spell with Newcastle behind him, Finegan said: “I’ve no regrets about what happened with Newcastle. There was no personal difficulty with them, they just decided to release five players at the end of the season – myself, Colin Charvis, Stuart Grimes, Dave Walder and Tino Paoletti. They’ve lost blokes with a lot of experience and replaced them with blokes straight out of the Academy.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m 34 years of age, I’m happy with what I’ve done in my career and I haven’t much to prove.

“What I’m getting here (at Leinster) is I’m able to play my rugby and they’re not expecting me to be a world beater. I can just do what I can do.”

Leinster came close to making a breakthrough in Cheika’s first season in charge – losing to eventual champions Munster in the Heineken Cup semi-final and finishing an agonising second to Ulster in the Celtic League, and Finegan has seen first hand just how hard his new team-mates are pushing themselves to get back on the silverware trail.

“The pre-season? It was a complete turnaround for me. Newcastle – over there they say it’s a long season, so they take it very easy at the start. They go softly, softly, whereas Leinster go harder, harder! And that meant plenty of running. I feel better for it and am really itching for games.

“I’ve been pushing cars and running up and down Killiney Hill. It doesn’t matter what age you are, I’ve been running with 18-year-olds.

“We’ve done all sorts of stuff (in training). There was nothing we didn’t do. It was like Michael was trying to run us into the ground before the season started.”

Finegan, whose parents were both born in Ireland, certainly feels at home at Leinster with the province’s increasing Australian influence helping to bed him in. But can he wield the same sort of influence that has seen Justin Harrison and John Langford become such cult figures at Ulster and Munster in recent seasons?

Finegan has respect for his former Wallaby team-mates, but is determined to go one better than the pair and secure a Heineken Cup winners’ medal.

He added: “Justin Harrison’s a very bubbly personality. He’s always got plenty to say, both on and off the field. I see he got sporting personality of Ulster last year. He’s a cranky personality but a personality nonetheless!

“John Langford got to Heineken Cup finals with Munster but never won it. Hopefully I can win one this year and put one over him!”