Donnacha Ryan soaked up his final game at Thomond Park on Saturday evening, and summed up his years in the Munster red with one simple sentence: "It means everything."
The 33-year-old lock was not given a new centralised contract by the IRFU and will head for a new adventure with Racing 92 this summer.
Saturday evening's 23-3 Pro12 play-off semi-final defeat of the Ospreys was his final game on the hallowed turf, and afterwards Ryan reflected on an emotional journey.
"It means everything," he told Sky Sports.
"I remember sitting in a classroom in Clanwilliam when I was 17 years of age, and a young, polite Alan Quinlan came in and said, 'look, playing for Munster is everything'.
"Little did I know that in seven or eight years' time he'd be effin' and blindin' at me on the pitch!
"My whole adult life I've played in Munster. I know nothing else. I got to play with my heroes growing up. Now I get to look on from the sidelines at the young heroes of Munster.
"Five metres out from the line for a lineout, walking up to it at Thomond Park, a wave of red coming in behind you... I will miss that. I hope to God I'm not playing against it."
Munster have one final hurdle to overcome if they're to end a hugely challenging season with silver.
The sudden passing of Anthony Foley last October devastated the province - and the entire rugby world - but it served to bond the team even closer together as they strive to give their coach a fitting tribute.
Munster face Scarlets, such impressive conquerors of Leinster at the RDS, in next Saturday's Aviva Stadium decider.
"He's been a massive influence on all of our lives," Ryan said of Foley.
"He's definitely been a massive influence on how we've performed all this year and hopefully we can take it a step further.
"We saw Scarlets doing a job on Leinster; they're on a good run. Certainly we're going to have to reassess a lot of the areas we'll have to work on going into next week.
"Leinster are a serious side, but it did give us a heightened sense of awareness of what could actually happen. We were just happy to get a win and we look forward to next week."
