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22nd October 2019
01:36pm BST
Rory Best is applauded from the field after Ireland's 46-14 loss to New Zealand. (Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile)[/caption]
Flannery and Best were rivals for the Irish No.2 jersey for six years but the former Munster hooker is in awe over the sheer length of his old foe's career at the top level.
"I don't think I would have had anything near the durability of Rory because Rory is naturally... he was the fat kid when he came into camp. He was naturally big. Whereas I was always trying to lift weights to build myself up, just to compete with him. "I saw the penny dropping with him, over time, where he thought, 'I just have to work a bit harder on keeping my weight down and getting fit'."Trimble notes that Best and Chris Henry were two of Ulster's standard-bearers when it came to fitness work and extras, and that they set the tone up there. "His durability is phenomenal," Flannery adds. "To win 120 caps as a hooker is just... I don't know how! And that's just one aspect of it.
"To play 120 Tests and keep going into the same job the whole time, when the pressure keeps growing. Once you get to 32, people will start going 'Ah, I think he's finished' and they're just constantly waiting to get you out the door. They're not allowing you time. They are actively trying to get rid of you. "And then to see all these young guys coming up. Like, himself and Denis Leamy [pictured below] are best mates and when Leamy retired from the game [in 2012], I said to myself, 'That's going to be hard for Rory, now'. But Rory just keeps on reinventing himself and staying relevant. "To be able to stay relevant to this younger group of players, I spoke to Paul O'Connell about it [before]. You just have to keep working down to their level and chatting to them, but it's hard."
Trimble says there is a genuineness to Best's leadership and that never needed to change. On the pitch, he kept adding to his game and working to stay ahead of the younger hookers that had designs on his place.
"He grew his game," says Flannery. "I remember when I was at Munster and Sean Cronin was coming through the academy, and I was like, 'Oh f***'. This guy, I can't compete with his level of athleticism so I have to find what my strong points are - being strong at set-piece and being unbelievably fit.
"To see Rory, then, competing with Sean, Richardt Strauss, Rob Herring, James Tracy and Niall Scannell, you saw he focused on his fundamentals but he was also a clever footballer and his breakdown work over the last few years was great. I used to say to the young lads at Munster, 'Look at the way Rory Best keeps evolving. As he loses pace or a bit of an ability to win a collision, he finds other ways'... he's had an amazing career. He was a warrior, that way."Flannery is not having people, now, saying, 'It's a pity it had to end like this'. "To get a 120 caps and lose to a team that is way better than you at the World Cup... you don't have a God-given right to anything. You get what you deserve." For Trimble, Best would only have been satisfied with a World Cup final win. He fell two steps short of that goal but he achieved a hell of a lot before he hung up that No.2 jersey on its dressing room peg for the final time.
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