A man who made memories that will be cherished for a lifetime

Everyone who had the privilege to interact with Paul O’Connell during his glittering 14-season playing career has a story to tell about the rugby forward who yesterday left the game having made an indelible mark on it as an icon, totem and legend. And each of those personal recollections touch on something very different from the heroic status we have correctly conferred on the man.

Tadhg Furlong’s tale epitomises that paradox, highlighting the man we have rightly lionised over 108 Ireland caps, four World Cups and three British & Irish Lions tours. The young prop, a Test rookie at last autumn’s World Cup, found himself sat in the Millennium Stadium stands next to O’Connell for Ireland’s quarter-final against Argentina.

O’Connell had seen so many great days inside that great arena in Cardiff. Two Heineken Cup triumphs, a Grand Slam success, his 100th Ireland cap, they had all been experienced there yet here he was last October, nine days short of his 36th birthday, his race run as an Ireland player following the serious, excruciatingly painful hamstring tear that would bring not just his Test playing days to an end but, eventually, his whole career.