Updated May 27th 2021, 10:01 PM<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
PARIS IN THE spring, 2000. Ireland haven\u2019t won over there\u00a0<\/em>for 28 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Already ahead, France scythe through the Irish defence on the counter-attack in the 45th minute and as Marc dal Maso gets the ball on Ireland\u2019s 10-metre line, he looks a certainty to finish under the posts. With the conversion to follow, les Bleus<\/em>\u00a0will lead 23-7 and be confident of seeing this one home.<\/p>\n But then Denis Hickie has his say.<\/p>\n Hurtling out of nowhere to get himself in front of dal Maso on Ireland\u2019s five-metre line, Hickie launches himself under the France hooker\u2019s legs and he knocks on over the tryline just as Brian O\u2019Driscoll arrives on the scene.<\/p>\n \u201cThat tackle by Den was the catalyst for our success in 2000, no doubt,\u201d says O\u2019Driscoll, who would go on to complete a very famous hat-trick in Ireland\u2019s 27-25 victory.<\/p>\n For more great storytelling and analysis from our award-winning journalists, join the club at The42 Membership today.\u00a0Click here to find out more ><\/p>\n \u201cMarc dal Maso scores there and I don\u2019t think we come back and win.<\/p>\n \u201cTechnique went out the window with it but that\u2019s what you need in certain instances. If Den thought about trying to make a proper tackle there, del Maso would have scored. You can be the best tackler in the world but defence is about desire and intent as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Hickie celebrates in Paris in 2000. Source: Billy Stickland\/INPHO<\/p>\n **********<\/p>\n Toulouse in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, 2006. Leinster are already out in front but the French side have just kicked a penalty to draw back to within five points.<\/p>\n Again, Hickie chooses his moment masterfully. A wild passage of play produces a turnover in the Leinster 22. Guy Easterby and Felipe Contepomi flash the ball wide to Hickie.<\/p>\n The left wing pushes down the accelerator and burns past two Toulouse forwards, exchanges passes with Gordon D\u2019Arcy and then sprints outside Vincent Clerc from 22 metres out, diving into the left corner to finish.<\/p>\n \u201cIt looked like Den was an U20 guy playing U15s rugby such was the gas he showed,\u201d says O\u2019Driscoll, who also scored that day.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was something else, with the whole lot of us standing in our own 22 cheering, out on our feet. That typified him too \u2013 the engine still to go, the decision-making, and the quality of pass. It said an awful lot about that ability to stay in the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n **********<\/p>\n Defining a rugby career in mere moments is unreflective of all that has gone into it but those moments do also give us a refined insight into what Hickie was capable of producing.<\/p>\n These two efforts in France are illustrations of the quality Hickie provided in a playing career that many felt he cut far too short when opting to retire at the age of just 31.<\/p>\n Brian O\u2019Driscoll, Keith Earls, and Tommy Bowe have nudged ahead of Hickie\u2019s 29 tries on Ireland\u2019s all-time try-scoring list since he hung up his boots, but Hickie had a better strike rate than any of them.<\/p>\n Across his 62 caps, Hickie scored an average of 0.47 tries per game, which is second only to Jacob Stockdale\u2019s 0.57 among Ireland\u2019s top 10 tries scorers.<\/p>\n Who knows how many more Hickie might have added if he had played on for longer? He had retired by the time Ireland and Leinster finally tasted real glory with a Grand Slam and Heineken Cup in 2009, but he wasn\u2019t forgotten by those who played with him.<\/p>\n Hickie\u2019s name doesn\u2019t always come up when people are discussing Ireland\u2019s best players but he belongs in that category. While others lifted trophies and picked up winner\u2019s medals, Hickie was part of the journey towards those successes.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n A banner for Hickie at the 2007 World Cup. Source: Billy Stickland\/INPHO<\/p>\n **********<\/p>\n Hickie was born into it. His father,\u00a0Tony, played fullback for St Mary\u2019s, Leinster, and the Barbarians and had a final Ireland trial but missed out on an international cap.<\/p>\n His uncle, also Denis, won six Ireland caps in the early 1970s and was part of the last Irish team that had won in Paris before that day in 2000.<\/p>\n Rugby was certain to be part of his life, but Hickie refined his natural speed with\u00a0Metro St. Brigid\u2019s Athletics\u00a0Club. He was crowned U15 All-Ireland champion in the 100 metres in 1991 and could have gone on to be a top sprinter.<\/p>\n By 1994, he was captaining St Mary\u2019s College to the Leinster Schools Senior Cup and playing for the Ireland Schools team. Two years later, having also played for the Ireland U21s, he got his first senior Leinster cap away to a Genoa President\u2019s XV.<\/p>\n Hickie\u2019s first Ireland cap came in 1997 at the age of 20, when he scored a try against Wales in the Five Nations. Though it took Irish rugby a few years to get to grips with what being professional really involved, Hickie was a serious trainer from the start.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the gym, he\u2019d always look to work out with the forwards and try to match his strength with us,\u201d recalls Shane Byrne, who played with Hickie for Leinster, Ireland, and the Lions.<\/p>\n \u201cHe never quite got there, maybe he passed out some of the forwards, but he was by far and away the strongest back in any province in Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n When O\u2019Driscoll arrived onto the Leinster scene in 1999, he was similarly struck by Hickie\u2019s professional attitude.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the early years, a lot of us liked a good time and don\u2019t get me wrong, he did too, but I think he was able to marry the professionalism a little bit better than some of the rest of us,\u201d says O\u2019Driscoll, who remains a good friend of Hickie\u2019s today.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was always in great shape, he was a big trainer, he turned up on big days for us, and he brought a real rugby intellect and a general intellect. He\u2019s a very clever guy and very selfless.\u201d<\/p>\n Hickie broke into the Ireland team in 1997 as a 20-year-old. Source: \u00a9 INPHO\/Billy Stickland<\/p>\n O\u2019Driscoll remembers Hickie being recalled to the Ireland team by Warren Gatland for the 2000 Six Nations game against Scotland when Ronan O\u2019Gara, Peter Stringer and a few others got their debuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n A 24-year-old Hickie, who hadn\u2019t played Test rugby since 1998, spoke to the team about how he was willing to forego his own individual focus for the betterment of the collective.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere was always a real maturity to him,\u201d says O\u2019Driscoll. \u201cEven now, I would use him a lot for counsel. I value his opinion because I know it\u2019s so well thought through and he\u2019d look at all angles.\u201d<\/p>\n Team-mates appreciated how there was always more to Hickie than rugby. Music is a major passion in his life and he even guest-hosted the\u00a0Waiting Room show on RT\u00c9 2FM once in 2006.\u00a0<\/p>\n Byrne and O\u2019Driscoll say he was a thoughtful, kind team-mate and also has a sharp sense of humour. Hickie needed to be able to laugh at himself when his infamous Wavin Pipes ad hit Irish TV.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was brilliant,\u201d says Byrne. \u201cHe was the first one really to get a nationwide ad on the box. Every single thing we could possibly think of in any meeting, Wavin was brought into it.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Driscoll adds that the slagging is ongoing.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember him trying to sell it to us and I just had to stop him. I was in convulsions laughing when I saw it for the first time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Whatever about his off-pitch endorsements, Hickie had pure ability as a rugby player, much of it founded on his athletic prowess.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had speed to burn and his work rate was immense,\u201d says Byrne. \u201cHe really had a great nose for the tries, turned up in the right place and could be physical when he needed to be. He had all the attributes to be the great finisher he was.\u201d<\/p>\n Hickie played for Leinster 126 times. Source: Dan Sheridan\/INPHO<\/p>\n There were some sublime scores over the years from Hickie, including the aforementioned effort against Toulouse and another for Ireland versus Australia in 2006 when he beat four defenders in the space of five metres.<\/p>\n \u201cGet him the ball one-on-one with anybody and he would cause them serious headaches,\u201d says O\u2019Driscoll of playing alongside Hickie.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cYou can be the most agile defender in the world but there\u2019s nothing you can do to defend pure speed. You\u2019d also be trying to run support lines off him because he was always going to suck in defenders and create space.\u201d<\/p>\n Hickie\u2019s only major trophy success with Leinster was the 2001 Celtic League final win over Munster, but Byrne flags how good the wing was in Europe \u2013 particularly the back-to-back wins over Leicester in the 1999\/00 season.<\/p>\n Hickie was a key man for Ireland at the 2003 World Cup, scoring three tries in their first three pool games before rupturing his Achilles tendon in the memorable win over Australia and missing the quarter-final defeat to France.\u00a0<\/p>\n There were many questions about how Hickie would come back from such a serious injury, particularly given his speed, but he bounced back impressively and had returned to the Ireland team by the 2004 November Tests, going on to secure a place on Clive Woodward\u2019s doomed 2005 Lions tour.<\/p>\n \u201cHe got stuck on that damn midweek team and just couldn\u2019t get out of it no matter what,\u201d says Byrne, who played in the three Tests against New Zealand.<\/p>\n O\u2019Driscoll was the tour captain \u2013 his Test series was cut very short, of course \u2013 and reckons he only trained properly with Hickie just once due to Woodward opting to completely split the squad into two.<\/p>\n The low point was Woodward coming to Hickie in the week of the second Test and telling him he had an important role to play. The Irish wing\u2019s hopes rose, only to be crushed by Woodward telling him the Lions needed his good humour to keep squad spirits up.<\/p>\n Later that year, injury struck again as Hickie\u00a0dislocated his right fibula and subsequently had a battle to regain his Ireland spot after the emergence of Andrew Trimble.<\/p>\n His exploits with Leinster made it impossible for Eddie O\u2019Sullivan to ignore him, however, and Hickie had established himself as a first-choice wing again for the 2007 Six Nations, in which he won his only silverware as an Ireland player.<\/p>\n Hickie bids farewell at the end of Ireland’s 2007 World Cup campaign. Source: Morgan Treacy\/INPHO<\/p>\n It was a Triple Crown, although it would have been a Grand Slam but for Vincent Clerc\u2019s late, late winning try for France in Croke Park in the second round.\u00a0<\/p>\n