Thinking of teammates, near and far.
Ireland were completely indebted to Chris Farrell when Robbie Henshaw injured his shoulder, two games into the Grand Slam quest. France and Italy had been dealt with but a physical Welsh side were coming to Dublin and still gunning for the title.
Farrell and his teammates sent them packing. The big Munster centre put in a superb all-round display and was a popular choice for man of the match in Ireland’s bonus point win.
Following the game, the 24-year-old spoke eloquently about what it meant to him to wear that famous green No.13 jersey. 8 days later, however, and both his tournament and season were over. He damaged knee ligaments in a training session at the Aviva Stadium and sadly limped out of the reckoning.
Farrell played a big part in Ireland’s championship and can proudly be included as a Grand Slam winner. He joined The Hard Yards to look back on the Six Nations and [from 31:00 below] told a quite heartwarming story about Munster and Ireland teammate Peter O’Mahony.
O’Mahony was rightly lauded after handing over his medal to devout Irish fan Jennifer Malone minutes after his side’s 24-15 victory over England, at Twickenham.
Farrell watched that game from Limerick but he was invited up to the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin to help carry on the celebrations that had started in London on Saturday. He commented:
“I was worried about what it would be like. Thinking, ‘Ach, I don’t want to be walking into the Shelbourne after only having one game to play’. I was nervous about it and was feeling that this may not be my place, but it was perfect.
“All the management came up and everybody had been texting me to say, ‘You had your part to play’ and ‘Make sure you enjoy your celebrations’.
“And even Sunday morning, when they were still in London, I got a text message from Peter O’Mahony saying, ‘Well done. Congratulations’.
“I don’t think they have forgotten everyone involved. There’s a massive squad effort involved and even the boys that never got to play – like Ian Keatley or Rory Scannell – them boys have had an enormous part to play and have driven standards in training, week in, week out.
“It does feel like a squad effort. It doesn’t feel like any one person deserves it more than anyone else, to be honest.”
Never has a truer word been spoken.
Amid the sheer revelry and craic going on over in London, it is heartening to learn that Peter O’Mahony was still thinking of the players – guys like Farrell, Josh van der Flier and Quinn Roux – that played small but pivotal parts in Ireland’s Grand Slam triumph.
