No one in Ireland needed another reason to be up for this Saturday’s match against France, not with the title on the line, and the grand slam, and the promise beyond it of a shot at becoming the first team in history to win the Six Nations back-to-back-to-back. All that, and the prospect of a spot on the British & Irish Lions tour down the line in the back of the mind. But they got three more good ones last week regardless when Cian Healy, Conor Murray, and Peter O’Mahony announced that they were going to retire, together, at the end of the championship, and that this would be the very last home game for all three of them.
Healy, Murray and O’Mahony have won 372 caps between them, which is more than you might find in a green Test XV. They have been ever-present through the era in which Irish rugby was transformed. Healy, who is the oldest of the three, won his first call-up in the spring of 2008 when they were still hopeful triers chasing their first grand slam in more than 50 years. It finally came a year later. Healy won his first cap that autumn in Brian O’Driscoll’s 100th match, a 20-20 draw against Australia.
