Irish fans celebrate a close-shave Six Nations

Momentous. Emotional. Epochal.

For fans of facial hair, there was barely a whisker between the outpouring that greeted BOD’s retirement and the news that Gordon D’Arcy’s beard had also played its last game for Ireland.

Twitter lit up with “before” and “after” pictures of the Beard, as Jonathan Sexton stretched out a strapped hand to shave off the outcrop.