Walter Walsh enjoying return to rugby after stellar hurling career with Kilkenny

You might expect Walter Walsh to have a little more time on his hands, now that he has drawn the curtain on 12 years of inter-county hurling with Kilkenny.

But the teacher/dairy farmer's wife Vicky gave birth to twins Charlie and Kate shortly before last week's retirement announcement, and he intends to play on for club Tullogher-Rosbercon until 40 if he can.

The 33-year-old needs a thumb operation, and is still working on the groin injury that kept him out for a couple of months in his final year with the Cats, but he has also picked up the oval ball again, lining out for local rugby club New Ross in the third tier of the Leinster League.

Despite being 6'7 (2.01m), Walsh has been deployed as a full-back rather than catching lineouts.

"Looking at me playing last Sunday, you'd think I made the right choice going with the hurling because the rugby wouldn't have gone too far," the once-promising underage player tells RTÉ Sport.

"I loved rugby and I've been playing with New Ross since I was five. I took a break for a couple of years. I enjoy it, it's something completely different.

"I think I made the right choice with the hurling. I think it would be arrogant of me to say that I could have played for Leinster or Ireland. I don't think that at all. I had a great career playing hurling and I maximised my talent."

Walsh made arguably the greatest inter-county debut in 2012 when he was called in for that year's All-Ireland hurling final replay.

The forward was on the Under-21 team that lost the final to Clare but had never played so much as a league or Walsh Cup minute when he was parachuted in for the senior rematch against Galway.

The then 21-year-old scored 1-03 from corner-forward and was named man of the match in a dream debut as