Rutherford was once on the England under-18 squad alongside Chris Sutton, Steve McManaman and Andy Cole. Rutherford scored the winning goal on his League of Ireland debut for Shels on 4 October 1991 at Tolka Park. He is one of the select group of players to have played for all of Dublin's Big 4 clubs – Shelbourne, Bohemians, Shamrock Rovers, St. Patrick's Athletic. His previous clubs include Shrewsbury Town, Birmingham City F.C., Newry Town and Longford Town. Rutherford's successful career includes 3 League of Ireland championships, 4 FAI Cups and 1 English 3rd Division championship. He was also an FAI Cuprunner up on 5 occasions. Rutherford scored three goals for Shelbourne in European competition. He netted against SK Brann in a 1996-97 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup tie, before scoring against Kilmarnock in the following season's competition and then against Glasgow Rangers in the 1998-99 UEFA Cup. With Shamrock Rovers, Rutherford made a total of 69 appearances scoring 3 goals in the 2004 and 2005 seasons before moving on to his fourth Dublin club in 2006 by joining St. Patrick's Athletic. Rutherford spent the 2007 season with Longford Town in a season where the midlands club suffered relegation from the Premier Division and were defeated in that seasons FAI Cup final in 1–0 defeat to Cork City at the RDS Arena. Rutherford departed Longford at the end of the 2007 season to rejoin former club Shelbourne on 31 January 2008 marking his third spell with the Tolka Park club. In the 2008 First Division season Rutherford made 29 league and cup appearances for Shels and scored 4 goals. His last goal in the League of Ireland was the winner at Athlone on 11 October. He finished a First Division runner-up that season as Shelbourne narrowly missed out on the title in the dying seconds of the season and Rutherford was voted the Shelbourne Supporters Development Group's Player of the Year for the 2008 season at the age of 36. Despite his impressive return to Shelbourne, Rutherford left the club at the end of the season and joined Leinster Senior League side Dublin Bus in 2009.
