Gregory O'Shea (born 23 March 1995) is an Irish rugby union player. He played for the Ireland national rugby sevens team, usually as a fly-half. In July 2019, O'Shea partnered with Amber Gill won the fifth series of ''

Love Island Love Island may refer to: Film * ''Love Island'' (1952 film), an American film directed by Adam Lloyd starring Todd Wathen and Eva Gabor * ''Love Island'' (2014 film), directed by Jasmila Žbanić Music * ''Love Island'' (album), a 1978 album ...

Early life and education

O'Shea is from Limerick, Ireland. His father Niall O'Shea and mother Carol O'Shea (née Ho) were both sprinters for Ireland. O'Shea's family is from Limerick, except his maternal grandfather who is from Hong Kong. O'Shea's maternal grandfather, Peter Ho, emigrated to Limerick from Hong Kong after World War II, opening up Limerick's first Chinese restaurant. O'Shea started playing rugby with local club Shannon when he was seven years old. O'Shea went to Scoil Íde in Corbally. He then attended Crescent College Comprehensive. In 2017, O'Shea graduated from the University of Limerick School of Law with a law degree.

Career

Sport

At Crescent College, O'Shea won a

Munster Schools Rugby Senior Cup The Munster Schools Senior Cup or Munster Senior Cup is the under-age rugby union competition for schools affiliated to the Munster Branch of the IRFU. The inaugural Munster Schools Senior Cup took place in 1909 and, since then, Cork city's two ...

with the school in 2013 when they defeated Rockwell College in the final, having also won Junior Cups in 2010 and 2011. In addition to playing rugby, he was also a sprinter; when he was 16 he competed for Ireland at the 2011 European Youth Olympics 100m where he finished sixth. It was O'Shea's last competitive race, as he decided to leave athletics behind and focus on rugby. O'Shea joined the

Munster Munster ( gle, an Mhumhain or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" ( ga, rí ruirech). Following the ...

academy in 2013, playing mostly wing and

fullback Fullback or Full back may refer to: Sports * A position in various kinds of football, including: ** Full-back (association football), in association football (soccer), a defender playing in a wide position ** Fullback (gridiron football), in Americ ...

. O'Shea encountered a setback in 2015 when he fell off a bicycle and lacerated his achilles tendon, which took him a year until returning to full health. Despite the injury, Munster extended his academy place for an additional year. O'Shea was unable to earn a place on the Munster senior team, and he left the province. O'Shea then began playing with the Ireland national sevens team. He played for Ireland at the

2017 Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix Series The 2017 Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix served as a European qualifier not only for the 2018 Hong Kong Sevens qualifier tournament, but for two bids among the teams not already qualified for the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens. Schedule Standing ...

, where Ireland finished in second behind Russia. O'Shea struggled with injuries and missed the 2018 Hong Kong Sevens qualifying tournament, although he did make the

2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens The 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens was the seventh edition of the Rugby World Cup Sevens. Organised by World Rugby, it was held at AT&T Park, now known as Oracle Park, in San Francisco, United States. A total of 84 matches were played over three da ...

squad. O'Shea made the Ireland squad for the

2019 Hong Kong Sevens The 2019 Hong Kong Sevens was a rugby sevens tournament that took place at the Hong Kong Stadium between the 5–7 April 2019. It was the 44th edition of the Hong Kong Sevens, and the seventh tournament of the 2018–19 World Rugby Sevens Serie ...

qualifier, helping the team win the tournament and qualify for the World Rugby Sevens Series. In June 2019, O'Shea played on the Paris 7s team. He was part of Ireland's Rugby Sevens squad which began training in August 2019 for the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

in Tokyo. In November 2019 he was named in Ireland's squad for the World Sevens.

Television

''Love Island''

In 2019, O'Shea won the fifth series of ''

'' alongside

Amber Gill Amber Rose Gill (born 4 August 1997) is an English television personality and author. In 2019, she won the fifth series of '' Love Island''. She has since presented the ITV series ''The Full Treatment'' (2021), as well as competing on the Cha ...

, with 49% of the final public vote.

Virgin Media

O'Shea joined Virgin Media Television in November 2022 as a presenter on ''

The 6 O'Clock Show ''The Six O'Clock Show'' is an Irish evening-time television show on Virgin Media One (formerly known as "TV3"). It is a live show, and provides chat, live music, cooking, entertainment, showbiz and technology updates. It replaced '' The 7 O'C ...

''.

Leadership

* 2019–present: Rugby Players Ireland, Executive Board Member

References

External links

*
Greg O'Shea
at Munster Rugby
Greg O'Shea
at

Irish Rugby Football Union The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) ( ga, Cumann Rugbaí na hÉireann) is the body managing rugby union in the island of Ireland (both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). The IRFU has its head office at 10/12 Lansdowne Road and home ...

(Ireland 7s)
Greg O'Shea
at

Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) is an annual international men's rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The current champions ar ...

(Six Nations U20) * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:OShea, Greg Living people 1995 births People educated at Crescent College Rugby union players from County Limerick Irish people of Hong Kong descent Irish rugby union players Irish sportspeople of Asian descent Shannon RFC players Ireland international rugby sevens players Rugby union wings Virgin Media Television (Ireland) presenters Olympic rugby sevens players of Ireland Rugby sevens players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Love Island (2015 TV series) contestants