Brian O'Driscoll's early career at Leinster overlapped with the autumn of Gary Halpin's, and just a day after Halpin's passing the former Ireland centre remembered the late prop fondly.
Halpin died suddenly earlier this week and O'Driscoll was joining a long list of former teammates with touching recollections of Halpin's brilliant personality.
"He was the unofficial star of the tour... for what he did off the pitch"
Gary Halpin was a rare bright light in what was a very trying time for Irish rugby according to Nick Popplewell and Mick Galwey.@vodafoneireland #TeamOfUs https://t.co/qUD55RSZMc pic.twitter.com/DvZizvXaHe— Off The Ball (@offtheball) February 25, 2021
"I was new to the game and he had just come over from Harlequins to Leinster for a couple of seasons and yeah, he was the life and soul of that team," recalled O'Driscoll.
"Great craic to be around, very generous with everybody. Just fun, always trying to have a laugh at any opportunity, but he took his rugby very seriously.
"He was a really brilliant character to have in your environment and the tributes, the outpourings of grief that you have heard, beyond Poppy and Mick Galwey.
"I am on a few WhatsApp groups and people in the UK, the effect it had on the slightly older generation, the Martin Bayfield era.
"Everyone that has been in contact with him over the course of the last 30 or 40 years had nothing but good things to say and nice memories and only speak glowingly about him.
"It is just incredibly sad that he has been taken way before this time."
Professional era Gary Halpin
Gary Halpin came through the amateur era primarily. Something that made the early years of the professional era 'challenging' according to O'Driscoll.
"It was more challenging for those players to understand what professionalism was. The penny didn't drop with me for a good few years and I was always a professional," admitted the former Lion captain.
"I had spent time with those guys who had jobs and played with the national team. You can't just flick a switch overnight [to professionalism].
"He was definitely one of those guys that enjoyed the amateur era but then tried to be as good a pro as he could be, but it is not as easy as it might appear when you really have only known one way. But what a fun guy to be around," O'Driscoll said of the late and much-missed Gary Halpin.
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