Leinster head coach Leo Cullen has paid tribute to Dan Leavy, who on Tuesday announced his retirement from the game at the age of 27.
The Ireland flanker suffered a horrific knee injury in March 2019 and despite a valiant effort to return to the top level, after playing 16 times since coming back in December 2020, he was forced to admit defeat.
Speaking ahead of tomorrow's Heineken Champions Cup round-of-16 clash against Connacht, the Leinster head coach told RTÉ Sport about Leavy’s decision to call it a day.
"If you wind the clock back it's three years now since the actual injury itself so I think there was a realisation at that point it was such a significant injury," he said.
"Dan has applied himself unbelievably well but he's never been unfortunately able to get back to that point where he was at that point in time.
"So there would be lots of different conversations. He got back for a period if you remember, went for surgery again and he battled his way back again.
"We've been keeping a very, very close eye on him, regular communication with how he's going and everyone's done everything they can so from a medical point of view here, the care that Dan has, Dan how he's applied himself...
"That conversation has been very, very open and to the club's credit again, they've tried to back him as much as possible and try to do what's the right thing by him.
"Even still, knowing what we know and everything that he has gone through, it has been tough for Dan, trying to do everything he possibly can to get back.
"So we're all devastated for him here.
"He's such a great character, he really is, but he only told guys here on Monday, the rest of the players.
"He might have had some individual conversations with guys prior to that but in terms of telling the group here, yeah, it's a tough one when you hear the words being said out loud.
"I personally have had conversations with Dan over the last while, all through the process really, so, yeah, look, the guys have been good here. It's not easy, it's not easy at all, just because he's so well respected in the group.
"I've seen different comments people have made about him, how he was such a special talent coming through as a schoolboy in particular."
Tributes have poured in for the Grand Slam, Champions Cup and three-time Pro12 winner over the last few days and in a high-quality field of Irish back row forwards, Cullen admitted that the former St Michael’s pupil had a unique "presence" on the field.
He added: "He has such amazing self-belief for starters, even to continue on over the last couple of years the way he has to try and get himself back, so the self-belief that he has is pretty incredible.
"And he brings real presence. Like, what is presence?
"We talk to our players all the time around that presence, how it can be quite a hard thing to describe, but the presence he brings to the group, because of that confidence piece that he has, and there's still the playing piece as well in terms of a stopper in defence is the way we'd describe it.
"So the game of rugby for all it's complications and it's different intricacies, there's this contact point between the attacker and the defender and Dan had the presence in that contact, plus the mindset to dominate his opposite as well.
"When he carried he was very, very strong; that is the big point of difference he had and you could see it in that 2018 season in particular, when he was part of a very, very successful Leinster period,
"When you think about the away European Cup final against Racing, that is when you need your big players to step up.
"Dan as a young man at the time, 24, you see the impact he had on those games, both in attack and defence, his carries, his close quarter stuff, he was a different level to everyone else in that period."
Leinster, four-time European champions, are heavy favourites for tomorrow's game.
Connacht have shipped 92 points in two games against the visitors this season and are hoping that a passionate Sportsgrounds crowd can help them over the line.
Cullen, meanwhile, wants his side to match the Westerners - appearing for the first time in the Champions Cup knock-out stage - for hunger.
"I hope [our passion] is pretty high," he said.
"It’s for the tournament, for this game against a provincial rival and for the tournament and it means a huge amount to everyone involved with the clubs, players, supporters and all the backroom, team.
"A huge amount of work has gone into getting us to this point and it was pretty hairy at one point if you remember back to Christmas time so the situation we are in now is off the back of a lot of hard work and I’m sure Connacht will be saying something similar.
"It’s not quite knock-out rugby but it is knock-out rugby over two legs and this is the first half this week.
"You just try and get as much as you possibly can out of the game. It is an unusual dynamic, it's one we haven’t actually faced before but it is still reasonably simple: we have to get what we can from the game and just see how it plays out.
"Try to maximise the points that are there on offer and build towards the following game."
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