Denis Hickie, John Kelly, Matt Mostyn, Keith Gleeson, David Humphreys, Anthony Foley. We were lucky to have them. Will we see their likes again?, asks Gerry Thornley
ANOTHER SEASON older and the game is a little deeper in debt. One can hardly recall so many leading Irish players retiring simultaneously, but coming at the end of a World Cup cycle that was always going to be the case. Presumably it will be the same again circa 2011 and so on.
Except that, by then, others will have followed suit. A generation, the generation which either helped kick-start the professional era or whose careers co-incided with that monumental moment in rugby history, is coming to an end.
World Cups, even more than Lions tours, have become an end in themselves. Players will seek to extract what they can from the remainder of their careers and bow out accordingly. For example, if their bodies permit, the likes of Ronan O'Gara, Peter Stringer, Brian O'Driscoll and others might see the 2011 tournament as a natural target for a curtain call on their careers.
Keith Wood did so immediately after the 2003 World Cup, while Denis Hickie set the ball rolling this season by announcing his intentions in advance of last year's Coupe du Monde. Hickie, and the unfortunate Simon Best, have been followed by John Kelly, Matt Mostyn, Keith Gleeson, David Humphreys and Anthony Foley, all of whom have played - or in Foley's case possibly, will be playing - their last competitive games in May.
All have playing links with the game when it was amateur. Maybe that's why they were all always courteous and helpful, and one imagines the vast majority of the press box and public would agree.
Indeed, in terms of subjects to interview, the press box has just seen a golden generation depart.
Not bad players either. History will judge Hickie to be something of a freak, an innately natural footballer with the kind of pace not exactly commonplace among Caucasian Irish sportsmen. And it wasn't just the record number of tries for Leinster, or a Test tally second only to Brian O'Driscoll, or the countless tries he saved with his covering pace, or the mammoth ground he could gain with his left boot.
There was also his popularity, likeability and leadership among his peers. He was badly missed in the Leinster and Irish dressingrooms and backlines this season; neither functioned as well without him.
But most of all, perhaps, was his courage and resilience. Three times, effectively, he had to rebuild his career from the vagaries of bad injuries, sometimes coupled with selectorial whimsy and form.
Over time, Kelly had assumed an equally influential and respected role within the Munster set-up: witness the emotional, bang-on-the-money talk he gave in the huddle before the European Cup final in 2006 against Biarritz. One can still recall him announcing his intentions at the outset of the 1997-98 season with a try from his own half in an interpro against Leinster.
He'll possibly feel he might have won more caps and would have done so in a different era. But he remains Munster's joint second-highest try-scorer in the Heineken European Cup, and only four Munster team-mates have played more European games than Kelly.
Matt Mostyn has been so long in Ireland, 10 years now, he doesn't know whether to call Australia home any more. He was always a classy finisher as well as a top bloke, and for years remained Connacht's main strike-runner and go-to back, who could hit the line from fullback like few others. As much as anything else, Connacht need another Mostyn, if a younger version.
Like that trio, Gleeson, even Foley - and even Humphreys, come to think of it - probably weren't given the credit they deserved. Gleeson's classy, intelligent, heads-up link play in his valedictory farewell against the Dragons was a final reminder of how he and his game will be missed.
The ultimate pro, he will also be missed as an example to budding Leinster players, and he should have gone to the World Cup (along with Jamie Heaslip). Very goal driven - be it a World Cup or Lions tour - his departure at 31 comes, appropriately, very much on his terms.
Foley, one hopes, has one more farewell himself, for the thought of a Munster 22 without him is still a little discomfiting. An immensely intelligent footballer and front-of-the-line fighter, his influence has probably been more profound than we'll ever know.
He also provides the last link with the kind of streetwise, winning leadership honed out of Shannon granite, which remains - more than any academy or schools system - as important as any building block for the relative good times in Irish rugby this past decade.
Humphreys' career even pre-dates Foley's in terms of its longevity at the top. If professionalism was good for Foley, no one deserved to be part of the upturn in fortunes more than the Ulster outhalf, having soldiered through the second half of the Naughty Nineties. In terms of pure footballing ability, Ireland have produced nothing better in the last 15 years. He had it all: pace, appreciation of space and team-mates, a sidestep and a sweet boot.
His Test career could have been handled better. Had he not been marooned on the bench for the 2005 Six Nations, he might well have remained on to the last World Cup, which would have been good for Ronan O'Gara as well as Ireland.
In any event, he leaves countless memories, the frequency with which he rose to the big occasion, his talismanic presence in Ulster's memorable European Cup win of 1998-99, the virtuoso nights in Ravenhill when racking up ridiculous amounts of points and countless vintage displays for Ireland, be it the way he and Ireland took it to the All Blacks at Lansdowne Road in 2001, or how he came off the bench to brilliantly steer Ireland to that seismic win over the Scots in 2000.
Like the others, he'll be missed more, now that he's gone, but like them too, Humphreys can be proud of what he achieved.
Best of all, they each have something tangible to show for their efforts, especially the European Cup winners, and the Triple Crowns and Magners Leagues too.
Generations beforehand weren't so fortunate, as they know better than most.
