Former Ospreys boss Sean Holley has named the referee he never wants to see again, revealed the story of an old-school tour in Ireland that resulted in six players getting sent home, and explained why he is glad he is no longer involved in coaching.<\/p>\n
The 55-year-old is now the co-owner of a golf business while also working in public speaking and rugby punditry. He recently appeared on The Offload<\/a>, the podcast hosted by Tommy Bowe, the ex-Ospreys winger, and Donncha O\u2019Callaghan.<\/p>\n Recalling the Welsh region\u2019s run to the 2010 Celtic League title<\/a>, which involved playing away to Munster, Ulster and Leinster near the end of the season, Holley referenced the devastating 29-28 Heineken Cup quarter-final loss they suffered against Biarritz in San Sebastian.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had an old school tour to get to the (Celtic) final. We lost in San Sebastian to Biarritz. That is a different story. Three of the scruffiest drop goals Damien Traille ever scored\u2026 We had a penalty. Clock had gone in the red, penalty, arm out, George Clancy, whom I never want to meet in the street ever again.<\/p>\n Old school tour<\/p>\n \u201cSo Dan (Biggar)<\/a> goes for a speculative drop goal knowing we had the penalty in front of the sticks to win the game by two points. He missed the drop goal attempt \u2013 and George blew up for full time (instead of allowing the penalty).<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re desolate and I\u2019m thinking, \u2018What do you say?\u2019 Filo Tiatia was retiring. I turned to our captain Ryan Jones and said, \u2018We can\u2019t let this great man retire on this\u2019. I have got a vision; I didn\u2019t, but we get to the final and I can see you lifting the cup on the rostrum and you call Filo to lift it with you.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had to go to Munster, Ulster and Leinster, three games in a week as we had a game called off earlier in the season, and we persuaded the board to let us go for the week, not let us fly back and forth. An old school tour to get two wins and two bonus points out of those three games.<\/p>\n \u201cWe beat Munster at Thomond, 20,000. We went to Ulster, Tommy scores the bonus point try in front of 15,500, so now we had two wins and one bonus point and just needed one losing bonus point in Leinster.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I said to the boys in the hotel, \u2018You will never play for this club again if I see somebody without a beer in their hand\u2019. I wish I never had. They thrashed the hotel. I had to send six of them home,\u201d he said, laughing.<\/p>\n Debating Tadhg Beirne\u2019s \u2018style of game gone\u2019 claim: The 35.8% statistic that backs up Ireland star\u2019s argument<\/a><\/p>\n Who\u2019s hot and who\u2019s not: Toulouse\u2019s \u2018unstoppable magician\u2019, Saints\u2019 \u2018supposed second-string\u2019 and \u2018shambolic\u2019 Harlequins<\/a><\/p>\n Having coached at the Gloucester academy, it was 2003, right at the start of the Ospreys<\/a> foundation, when Holley went to work with Lyn Jones. \u201cLyn is the best coach I have worked with, a technical, tactical genius,\u201d he insisted. \u201cHe taught me so much, as I was seeing things I had never seen before, and it encouraged my creativity to think how can I help and the level of detail on the (attack) moves.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked if he missed coaching, having stepped away following his last involvement (Bristol in 2016), Holley explained: \u201cDo I miss it? Sometimes I do. In times like Welsh rugby is in at the moment, I find myself scratching my head, I could really help here\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cI did (miss it) for the first couple of years. I had great offers coming in, but as time went by, every offer that came in, I would sit the family down and ask them, the three kids and my wife, and they would say, \u2018Don\u2019t do it, you are a better dad, a better husband, you are around more often\u2019. So that sort of persuaded me.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong, if the right one had come up that you couldn\u2019t say no to, then that would have been a different matter. But because I got so heavily into TV and doing analysis as well as commentary and punditry, it felt like I wasn\u2019t away from the game.<\/p>\n \u201cI was still immersed in it and was probably watching more rugby, watching all the different teams, doing all my analysis \u2013 I created a niche on the TV for that. And yeah, I didn\u2019t miss it as time has gone by.<\/p>\n \u201cI look at it now and couldn\u2019t think of anything worse than putting cones down. I channel my skills and ability into other things now, into my business and into other things.\u201d<\/p>\n PREM Rugby Team of the Week: British and Irish Lions star \u2018strikes terror\u2019 in \u2018proper statement\u2019 performance as Louis Rees-Zammit \u2018seems right at home\u2019 in new position<\/a><\/p>\n