NOT THAT IRELAND would have been short of motivation in the coming weeks, but today’s news means they’ll be playing out of their skins to send three Irish rugby legends into the sunset with another Six Nations title and maybe another Grand Slam.
Many players get the ‘legend’ tag only after retiring but Cian Healy, Peter O’Mahony, and Conor Murray are already firmly in that bracket.
They have 371 Ireland caps between them and could add another six in the closing two rounds of this Six Nations.
Healy is already Ireland’s record caps holder with his 136 and though Jack Boyle came into the matchday squad against Wales as the back-up loosehead, Healy’s experience will be hard to resist from here on in.
O’Mahony has been playing well in Ireland’s number six shirt and Murray is the back-up scrum-half to Jamison Gibson-Park, so it seems almost certain that all three will play their final home games for Ireland in the clash with the French in Dublin on 8 March.
Under Andy Farrell and Simon Easterby, this Ireland group have made a huge deal of playing with an extra edge for team-mates who are hitting milestone caps or moving on. Their whole squad culture has been about honouring their team-mates.
Few players are more than worthy of celebrating in winning fashion than Healy, Murray, and O’Mahony.
All three have had to deal with serious injuries but they have essentially been ever-present figures in the most glorious era of Irish rugby. Indeed, all three are directly responsible for the unprecedented success of the past decade or so.
This trio all featured in Ireland’s Six Nations title successes in 2014, 2015, 2018, 2023, and 2024, with Grand Slams in 2018 and 2023.
Healy and O'Mahony celebrate in 2018. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Factoring in that injuries are such a big part of professional sport, it is truly remarkable that all three of Healy, O’Mahony, and Murray have been part of each of those championship successes. And there’s another one on the line now in the coming weeks.
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Healy made his debut in 2009, Murray in 2011, and O’Mahony in 2012. It will be jarring to soon see Irish squads without their names in them. They weren’t able to help Ireland break the World Cup quarter-final ceiling but it wasn’t for lack of trying. Murray played in four World Cups, while O’Mahony and Healy were at three each.
There were magical days against the All Blacks, Springboks, and others along the way.
Blindside flanker O’Mahony has been one of the greatest lineout forwards that rugby has seen. It is those numerous soaring lineout steals that Irish and Munster fans will remember most, along with his relentless aggression.
He has been a pain in the backside for every opponent he has faced and continues to be now. O’Mahony’s ongoing good form upon returning to the starting team for this campaign suggests he could have played on a little longer, but he will look to go out at the very top.
There have been tough times for O’Mahony, including the serious ACL injury he suffered at the 2015 World Cup and losing his starting place on a couple of occasions, but he responded stoically. Indeed, during one period as a bench player for Farrell’s Ireland, he said it was perhaps the most enjoyable part of his career.
Healy has been a transformative figure, bursting onto the scene as a rampaging young loosehead prop and changing what is expected of players in his position thanks to his explosive power and mobility.
He had signed retirement papers in 2015 when struggling to recover from a neck nerve issue but managed to fight back from that injury and return to his leading role with Leinster and Ireland.
He has redesigned himself as a prop in recent years, honing his set-piece craft and figuring out ways to impact games when others took on more ball-carrying responsibility. Healy has also been a highly influential mentor for Andrew Porter and many other younger props. He surely has a role as a scrum coach somewhere in the future.
Having finished with Ireland at the end of this Six Nations, Healy and O’Mahony will call time on their careers altogether when this season ends. They have been massive figures for Leinster and Munster too.
Conor Murray has been a key man for Ireland. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Murray will continue to play abroad next season, but he too will finish with Ireland in this Six Nations.
There’s surely no doubt that he is Ireland’s best-ever scrum-half. An intelligent all-rounder whose power from close range has been important to Ireland many times, Murray is also a world-class kicker who has defended strongly throughout his career.
He too had to deal with a frustrating, debilitating injury when he had a neck problem for a lengthy period in 2017 and 2018. Even when he was back playing, the issue impacted Murray’s play but he soldiered through it.
He was a key man for Joe Schmidt’s Ireland, with his controlling play key to their success, and while Jamison Gibson-Park has been the starter at scrum-half in recent years, Murray has remained influential off the bench or when stepping in at number nine in the former’s absence.
Like O’Mahony and Healy, there have been repeated calls over the years for younger players to be preferred to Murray but he has consistently proved the doubters wrong.
All three of these Irish legends have been selected for Lions tours. Murray has eight Test caps from three trips, O’Mahony captained the Lions for the first Test in 2017, and Healy was picked for the 2013 tour before an ankle injury cruelly ruled him out.
The coming fortnight or so will truly be the end of an era as Murray, O’Mahony, and Healy follow Johnny Sexton and Keith Earls into retiring from this Ireland set-up.
They have all been huge figures during the Farrell era but the process of handing over to the next generation is already well underway.
Healy has been a giant of a figure at loosehead prop. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
O’Mahony captained Ireland to last year’s Six Nations title but he was replaced as skipper by 26-year-old Caelan Doris this season, while 26-year-old Dan Sheehan captained the team for the first time last week.
28-year-old James Ryan and 32-year-old Tadhg Furlong have also captained Ireland, 33-year-old Tadhg Beirne is the current Munster skipper, 30-year-old Garry Ringrose has led Leinster, 25-year-old Cian Prendergast is Connacht’s captain, while 28-year-old Hugo Keenan is part of Ireland’s leadership group.
In that sense, Ireland believe they already have their next core group of leaders firmly in place, while Porter is the key man at loosehead, Gibson-Park runs the show at scrum-half, and there are several strong options at blindside flanker.
And yet, there’s no doubt that the national team is losing a huge chunk of Test rugby class and nous.
The turning of the page will continue this summer in Georgia and Portugal as Easterby leads Ireland on tour without a presumably large group of Irish players who travel to Australia with Farrell’s Lions.
Before all of that, O’Mahony, Murray, and Healy have the chance to strengthen their status as legends of Irish rugby.
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End of an era as Ireland look to send legends off with a Grand Slam
NOT THAT IRELAND would have been short of motivation in the coming weeks, but today’s news means they’ll be playing out of their skins to send three Irish rugby legends into the sunset with another Six Nations title and maybe another Grand Slam.
Many players get the ‘legend’ tag only after retiring but Cian Healy, Peter O’Mahony, and Conor Murray are already firmly in that bracket.
They have 371 Ireland caps between them and could add another six in the closing two rounds of this Six Nations.
Healy is already Ireland’s record caps holder with his 136 and though Jack Boyle came into the matchday squad against Wales as the back-up loosehead, Healy’s experience will be hard to resist from here on in.
O’Mahony has been playing well in Ireland’s number six shirt and Murray is the back-up scrum-half to Jamison Gibson-Park, so it seems almost certain that all three will play their final home games for Ireland in the clash with the French in Dublin on 8 March.
Under Andy Farrell and Simon Easterby, this Ireland group have made a huge deal of playing with an extra edge for team-mates who are hitting milestone caps or moving on. Their whole squad culture has been about honouring their team-mates.
Few players are more than worthy of celebrating in winning fashion than Healy, Murray, and O’Mahony.
All three have had to deal with serious injuries but they have essentially been ever-present figures in the most glorious era of Irish rugby. Indeed, all three are directly responsible for the unprecedented success of the past decade or so.
This trio all featured in Ireland’s Six Nations title successes in 2014, 2015, 2018, 2023, and 2024, with Grand Slams in 2018 and 2023.
Factoring in that injuries are such a big part of professional sport, it is truly remarkable that all three of Healy, O’Mahony, and Murray have been part of each of those championship successes. And there’s another one on the line now in the coming weeks.
Healy made his debut in 2009, Murray in 2011, and O’Mahony in 2012. It will be jarring to soon see Irish squads without their names in them. They weren’t able to help Ireland break the World Cup quarter-final ceiling but it wasn’t for lack of trying. Murray played in four World Cups, while O’Mahony and Healy were at three each.
There were magical days against the All Blacks, Springboks, and others along the way.
Blindside flanker O’Mahony has been one of the greatest lineout forwards that rugby has seen. It is those numerous soaring lineout steals that Irish and Munster fans will remember most, along with his relentless aggression.
He has been a pain in the backside for every opponent he has faced and continues to be now. O’Mahony’s ongoing good form upon returning to the starting team for this campaign suggests he could have played on a little longer, but he will look to go out at the very top.
There have been tough times for O’Mahony, including the serious ACL injury he suffered at the 2015 World Cup and losing his starting place on a couple of occasions, but he responded stoically. Indeed, during one period as a bench player for Farrell’s Ireland, he said it was perhaps the most enjoyable part of his career.
Healy has been a transformative figure, bursting onto the scene as a rampaging young loosehead prop and changing what is expected of players in his position thanks to his explosive power and mobility.
He had signed retirement papers in 2015 when struggling to recover from a neck nerve issue but managed to fight back from that injury and return to his leading role with Leinster and Ireland.
He has redesigned himself as a prop in recent years, honing his set-piece craft and figuring out ways to impact games when others took on more ball-carrying responsibility. Healy has also been a highly influential mentor for Andrew Porter and many other younger props. He surely has a role as a scrum coach somewhere in the future.
Having finished with Ireland at the end of this Six Nations, Healy and O’Mahony will call time on their careers altogether when this season ends. They have been massive figures for Leinster and Munster too.
Murray will continue to play abroad next season, but he too will finish with Ireland in this Six Nations.
There’s surely no doubt that he is Ireland’s best-ever scrum-half. An intelligent all-rounder whose power from close range has been important to Ireland many times, Murray is also a world-class kicker who has defended strongly throughout his career.
He too had to deal with a frustrating, debilitating injury when he had a neck problem for a lengthy period in 2017 and 2018. Even when he was back playing, the issue impacted Murray’s play but he soldiered through it.
He was a key man for Joe Schmidt’s Ireland, with his controlling play key to their success, and while Jamison Gibson-Park has been the starter at scrum-half in recent years, Murray has remained influential off the bench or when stepping in at number nine in the former’s absence.
Like O’Mahony and Healy, there have been repeated calls over the years for younger players to be preferred to Murray but he has consistently proved the doubters wrong.
All three of these Irish legends have been selected for Lions tours. Murray has eight Test caps from three trips, O’Mahony captained the Lions for the first Test in 2017, and Healy was picked for the 2013 tour before an ankle injury cruelly ruled him out.
The coming fortnight or so will truly be the end of an era as Murray, O’Mahony, and Healy follow Johnny Sexton and Keith Earls into retiring from this Ireland set-up.
They have all been huge figures during the Farrell era but the process of handing over to the next generation is already well underway.
O’Mahony captained Ireland to last year’s Six Nations title but he was replaced as skipper by 26-year-old Caelan Doris this season, while 26-year-old Dan Sheehan captained the team for the first time last week.
28-year-old James Ryan and 32-year-old Tadhg Furlong have also captained Ireland, 33-year-old Tadhg Beirne is the current Munster skipper, 30-year-old Garry Ringrose has led Leinster, 25-year-old Cian Prendergast is Connacht’s captain, while 28-year-old Hugo Keenan is part of Ireland’s leadership group.
In that sense, Ireland believe they already have their next core group of leaders firmly in place, while Porter is the key man at loosehead, Gibson-Park runs the show at scrum-half, and there are several strong options at blindside flanker.
And yet, there’s no doubt that the national team is losing a huge chunk of Test rugby class and nous.
The turning of the page will continue this summer in Georgia and Portugal as Easterby leads Ireland on tour without a presumably large group of Irish players who travel to Australia with Farrell’s Lions.
Before all of that, O’Mahony, Murray, and Healy have the chance to strengthen their status as legends of Irish rugby.
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End of an era Healy Ireland Legends Murray O'Mahony swansong