Golden boy bows out with nothing left to give — or say

And like that he was gone. The Long Goodbye we had called it all season. The last game for Ireland in Dublin. The very last game for Ireland, in Paris. The last Heineken Cup appearance, which turned out to be in Toulon. And then this. The last game. Period.

Eight minutes and 36 seconds he lasted. Not once did he touch the ball before his calf caved. Not a word did he utter to the media afterwards. Like Keyser Soze walking out of the police station in the Usual Suspects, O’Driscoll simply melted away into the night.

Leinster’s press officer was overloaded with entreaties for a few words by reporters desperate for one last hit before the withdrawal symptoms kicked in, but the most famous face in a stadium jointed with nearly 20,000 people was nowhere to be found.