It was not the bon adieu which Cian Healy, Peter O’Mahony and Conor Murray would have envisaged for their final Ireland game on home soil, nor the farewell which their team-mates would have hoped for on such a momentous day.
Healy could be seen shedding a tear during the anthems and ultimately Murray had a try assist when the loosehead rolled back the years with a trademark finish. But with the die already cast on a 42-27 defeat to France, that would have been a relatively hollow moment for the pair when they briefly slapped hands in modest celebration.
Sending them off into the sunset on a more fitting note had been a big source of motivation for the rest of the team as well.
Is it easy to over-react to Ireland’s French defeat?
“Yeah, it was big,” admitted Jamison Gibson-Park. “We had a small celebration on Thursday night. They’ve been unbelievable. I mean, I feel privileged to have played with all three of them.”
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Jamison Gibson-Park feels privileged to have played with departing Ireland trio
One of the anomalies of a rugby squad is that rivals in the same specialist positions also have to practice the same skills together and be supportive of each other. Despite effectively losing his starting place to Gibson-Park in latter years, Murray has adapted without throwing his toys out of the pram, has remained an invaluable presence in the squad, not least to the player who replaced him and has spoken generously of his successor.
“Yeah, he’s been unbelievable and he’s such a great guy,” said Gibson-Park of Murray. “I’ve been very privileged to play with him. He was one of the best in the world for the guts of 10 years. I used to watch on and when I first arrived in Ireland I was kind of amazed at how good he was really. He was unbelievably consistent, and I suppose in many ways I felt at that time I was probably a little inconsistent.
“So, I looked up to guys like him for sure, and then getting into camp with him, it’s been awesome to rub shoulders with him. He’s such a great guy and he’s certainly helped my career.”
As to the qualities of Murray’s game which Gibson-Park has most admired and imitated, his answer is no surprise.
“His kicking game. Like you guys all know, over the years under Joe [Schmidt] he was streets ahead of anyone else in the world with that part of his game, and he still is. He’s still unbelievable. I certainly learned a bit off him in that way.”
“We train together every day, so we’d be kicking after sessions and that kind of thing, so chewing the fat around that and I feel really lucky to have played with him.”
A downbeat Gibson-Park was speaking in the immediate aftermath of last Saturday’s defeat.
“There’s plenty to process, but I think for now we’re going to try to do our best to celebrate the lads because they’ve been unbelievable servants to Irish rugby, as well as the 50 cappers,” he added in reference to Caelan Doris, Finaly Bealham and Jack Conan all reaching the half-century mark.
“As tough as it is we’ll get around each other tonight and enjoy each other’s company and then get stuck into work.”
Gibson-Park agreed that the French team brought an increased level of intensity from the off compared to Ireland’s previous games in this Six Nations.
“Yeah it certainly felt that way. They came to play, and they fronted up physically as well as playing some nice ball. They have some great players and put us under a lot of pressure and turned it into points at the end of the day, and I think they were deserved winners.”
“There’ll be plenty of lessons to learn,” he added, “and we’ve still got another game to go. It would be nice to finish off in a good way for the lads that are done, obviously it was their last game in the Aviva, but we have another game next week to look forward to.
“That’s the beauty about this competition; we still have a game to go and we can turn it around hopefully. So I look forward to that.”
The day was, of course, also tarnished by a serious knee injury for Gibson-Park’s French counterpart Antoine Dupont. “I hopped in to say hello to him and wish him well, but yeah, he seemed a little down and I just wished him the best for the scans. But, yeah, it did look pretty serious.”
It was also a cruelly unfortunate incident.
“Exactly, yeah,” said Gibson-Park. “Rugby, eh?”
