Hickey's Last (Irish) Match

daveharnett

This munsterman would like to offer denis his ungrudging thanks to denis for his service to irish rugby. One of the few players of the "golden era" with the brains and skills for creative high-risk rugby. Despite the unfortunate circumstances of his exit from the international scene, I will remember him as the only leinseter player to perform in the semi against munster, making big breaks and tackles when his teammates had given up.
He will be missed

Snickers Man

There are not too many fast-twitch fibres in the Irish gene pool, and this guy seemed to have most of them.

I think it will be a long time before we have somebody with his blistering pace again.

Hippo

Well said OP. My abiding memory of him from this world cup (despite all the disappointments) will be his preventing the Contepomi try in the first half. Did you see how far behind him he started? No one else on the team could have managed that.

Snickers Man

Yup. And he did the same thing at Stade de France seven years ago to save a certain French try under the posts. Cut across from the wing to ankle tap somebody (I think it was Ibanez) who was just about to start celebrating a try. That he never scored.

Guy was a legend.

Agamemnon

daveharnett wrote:

This munsterman would like to offer denis his ungrudging thanks to denis for his service to irish rugby. One of the few players of the "golden era" with the brains and skills for creative high-risk rugby. Despite the unfortunate circumstances of his exit from the international scene, I will remember him as the only leinseter player to perform in the semi against munster, making big breaks and tackles when his teammates had given up.
He will be missed

Hear, hear. Thanks for the memories, Disco Den.

Zzippy

Wavin ad apart, Denis was a brilliant rugby player who gave me many great memories. Best of luck in his retirement, although methinks we haven't seen the last of him, he's a thinking man when it comes to rugby so I foresee a career of punditry or coaching down the line

LuckyLloyd

daveharnett wrote:

This munsterman would like to offer denis his ungrudging thanks to denis for his service to irish rugby. One of the few players of the "golden era" with the brains and skills for creative high-risk rugby. Despite the unfortunate circumstances of his exit from the international scene, I will remember him as the only leinseter player to perform in the semi against munster, making big breaks and tackles when his teammates had given up.
He will be missed

Yup. QFT.

siochain

daveharnett wrote:

This munsterman would like to offer denis his ungrudging thanks to denis for his service to irish rugby. One of the few players of the "golden era" with the brains and skills for creative high-risk rugby. Despite the unfortunate circumstances of his exit from the international scene, I will remember him as the only leinseter player to perform in the semi against munster, making big breaks and tackles when his teammates had given up.
He will be missed

fair play munsterman,

hickie was class on his day.

wowy

Hippo wrote:

Well said OP. My abiding memory of him from this world cup (despite all the disappointments) will be his preventing the Contepomi try in the first half. Did you see how far behind him he started? No one else on the team could have managed that.

What I was gonna say. Immense is what it was.

Trojan

It was a sad day for us watching him knowing it was the end. He really did himself proud though.

il gatto

I'm sorry to see him go. He could probably have another few years out of it though. He's lost some pace, but he had so much to start with he'd still leave most sitting, and he's not been crucified with bad or recurring injuries. I suppose it thought he'd go out on a high after a good WC rather than gradually fading out of things. Ah well.:(

pucan

It's a pity the team couldn't give a better send off to a great servant of irish and leinster rugby.
Of course no one needs to be reminded of this but anyway: http://youtube.com/watch?v=NzW5KlXF5d8

davyjose

Best finisher in Irish Rugby - EVER!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzW5KlXF5d8

To Denis!!!

davyjose

Ha ha, sorry Pucan - didn't read down that far!!!

remus808

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA6vdKNuKro

My favourite try of all time! What a genius.

Punchbowl

hey, seeing as we're dedicating this thread to Denis, any chance we could edit the title to have the correct spelling of his name? ie Hickie

RuggieBear

Punchbowl wrote:

hey, seeing as we're dedicating this thread to Denis, any chance we could edit the title to have the correct spelling of his name? ie Hickie

lol

ok

Aldini98

Fair play to him but he was as awful as the rest of them in the WC.

madds

Snickers Man wrote:

Yup. And he did the same thing at Stade de France seven years ago to save a certain French try under the posts. Cut across from the wing to ankle tap somebody (I think it was Ibanez) who was just about to start celebrating a try. That he never scored.

Guy was a legend.

It was del Maso, here's the vid. My God Hickie could shift.

Hickie's try-saving tackle against French in Paris

Junior

Aldini98 wrote:

Fair play to him but he was as awful as the rest of them in the WC.

Ahh here piss off, this is a tribute thread to one of the best irish players we'll likely see for a while.

RuggieBear

lets keep it civil.

Junior

That was civil, I mean there's loads of threads to moan about the RWC etc., however this was the only thread I saw for Disco Denis !

I was gutted when I heard he was leaving the scene, i thought I had misheard at first that he'd just retired from international, he'll be a big hole to fill in that team.