Earlier today, the sad news was confirmed that Paul O'Connell has played his last game for Ireland.
The captain and leader was due to retire after the Rugby World Cup but that has been brought forward as injury rules him out of the rest of this year's tournament.
Tonight on Off The Ball, his former team-mate and Munster head coach Anthony Foley and his former Lions coach Ian McGeechan joined us on the show to pay tribute to a legend of the game.
"In about '99, we had a pre-season trial game and he rocked up as a 20-year-old to partake in the session. We knew from an early stage he had something. Just the way he carried himself, fitted into the group even for a young man. He was athletic, he got things very quickly, he didn't have to be explained things twice and players wanted to play with him," said Foley of his early impressions of the second row.
McGeechan was the man who made him captain for the 2009 Lions Tours and he touched on the reasons why he bestowed O'Connell with that honour.
"I think sometimes it's what you see from a distance or when you're in an opposing team, being with Scotland and with Wasps at the time. You just see the impact he has on his own team as well as on an opponent. I likened him to Martin Johnson and the two of them were massive captains. Ireland were really blessed to have him and Brian O'Driscoll there for so long," he said.
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