For most rugby union players, you would think that winning the Rugby World Cup with their nation would be the pinnacle of their career, but a former All Black has revealed that winning the European Cup with Leinster and holding the Heineken Cup aloft with Brian O'Driscoll gave him more enjoyment than getting his hands on the Webb Ellis cup.
Brad Thorn arrived in Dublin on a short term deal in March 2012 in order to help Leinster win their second consecutive Heineken Cup, and that is exactly what he did as he started at lock in the final and Leinster defeated Ulster 42-14.
Only seven months earlier, Thorn was collecting a World Cup winner's medal as the 2011 tournament hosts defeated France in the final, again with Thorn in the starting team, but the All Black legend has revealed in an interview with ESPNscrum.com that he took more joy from the Heineken Cup win:
When I held up the cup with Brian O'Driscoll, that was just gold. The World Cup wasn't really like that for me, it was a duty to my country, there was too much on the line. There's too much at stake.
Thorn, who accumulated 59 caps in eight years with the All Blacks, explained that the pressure to perform with New Zealand meant that he couldn't enjoy it as much as he would of liked, whereas there was no such pressure as a late addition to that victorious Leinster squad in 2012:
I was a senior member of that team and it was a job I just had to get done and then move on with my life. Even to my team-mates, I knew I couldn't show any weakness. I didn't sleep very well, I was pretty much run down by the time we reached the final. The pool stage was fine but when we reached the quarter-finals I shut myself down, it was business time. I was in tears after the whistle in the final and that was because I had put so much pressure on myself.
Thorn is still playing today at the ripe old age of 40 after he signed for the Leicester Tigers. What a hero.
via Independent.ie
