The old dog for the hard road is almost out of road.
But Peter O'Mahony, who on Thursday announced he will retire from rugby at the end of the season, is "at peace" with his decision.
For 15 years and across over 300 professional appearances, the former Munster, Ireland and Lions captain has put his body on the line for the cause, displaying scant regard for the consequences of his abrasive style.
He gave serious consideration to calling it a day at the end of last season, which would have meant he signed off in his final season as a Six Nations-winning captain.
But the hunger and drive remained, and he was able to reason himself out of it.
And last Saturday’s performance against Wales, where he played 80 minutes and made 19 tackles in the crucial Six Nations win, proved him right.
"It took a while," said the 35-year-old on Thursday when asked about how he came to his decision.
"I obviously thought about it last year under lots of different circumstances.
"It was something I had to weigh up, family-wise, club-wise. I think my big litmus test was whether I was capable of continuing to play for Ireland.
"That was the big thing. I'm glad I made the call. I'm happy with the decision now."
Most players agonise at the prospect of calling it a day, the thoughts of veering over to the side of the road to let others pass by painful. There’s an understandable fear of the unknown.
The Corkman has been a rugby player since the age of five, and a professional since the age of 20 when he made his Munster debut while still in the academy.
He knows "nothing else other than rugby."
"I think I'm at peace, yeah," he said.
"If you'd said to me at [age] five or six, or 10, or 17 or 18, or 25, that I'd be sitting here and be still playing for Ireland at this level, there isn't one of those versions of me that wouldn't have bitten your hand off for that, and probably would have said 'there's no chance that is going to happen'.
"I have worked hard, I've put a lot into my career, personally and in lots of other ways, but I know I've been very lucky and I think I can be at peace sitting here saying that I'm looking forward to the next few weeks."
O’Mahony, an AIL winner with Cork Constitution in 2010, has had many up and downs across his career, including a serious knee injury in 2015.
He captained every team he played for, going back to his school days at Presentation Brothers College, and continuing to lead at various times for Munster, Ireland and the Lions.
While he dropped back to a squad player instead of a regular starter in recent years as a bevy of quality back-rowers emerged, his influence and ability to lead meant Andy Farrell was keen to keep him around, getting as many younger players to be around his sphere for as long as possible.
But there were and are still battles to be fought on the front line, and he looks at his warrior-like performance in Cardiff as justifying the decision he’d made, not a sign that he’d made the wrong one.
"No, I was loving last week," he said of the game in which Ireland fought back from eight points down after played for 20 minutes with 14 players.
"I loved the fact I got 80. I enjoyed every minute of it. It was tough, it was an unbelievably difficult Test match but I felt great after it. I felt sore for the next few days but I felt good about the squad.
"I thought that kind of test would stand to us over the next couple of weeks, the way we navigated our way through."
He began his international career in 2012, coming on as a substitute in the Six Nations win over Italy in Dublin, and in 2024 win his fifth Six Nations title.
To much laughter, he revealed that he had suffered through a couple of false starts in the form of an enforced tactical reshuffle and a frozen pitch before getting his first cap.
"I actually got picked against Wales [in round one] and [Stephen] Ferris got yellow-carded for a spear tackle so I had to sit back down [on the bench] again," he said.
"And then we went to France the following week and we warmed up and it was cancelled and I said, 'f*** it, I'm never going to get capped'.
"Then we had a week off and luckily, yeah, the following week against Italy I got capped."
He captained the Lions in the first Test against New Zealand in 2017 (above) but didn’t feature in the remaining games.
The on-field disappointments, however, were nothing compared to the loss of good friend, team-mate and coach Anthony 'Axel’ Foley, who died suddenly, aged 42, in 2016 in Paris on the morning of a Champions Cup tie against Racing 92.
That game was immediately cancelled but the team decided to fulfil the following week’s clash with Glasgow at Thomond Park.
O’Mahony was asked about his thoughts during that week.
"Yeah, look, what else were we going to do?" he replied after a pause.
"There was no other option. We obviously had the call that week, to play the Glasgow game or not. That was the big decision.
"And our thought process was, ‘he would have killed us if we hadn’t played that game’ and thankfully, we did and I think we paid him due respect in that game."
Like club and country team-mate Conor Murray, who also announced his intention to call time on his international career after the Six Nations, O’Mahony’s best days came in green.
A keen fan when Munster won two Heineken Cups in the noughties, O’Mahony doesn’t downplay the fact that the 2023 URC title wasn’t a salve to the hurt of underachievement in Europe.
"I look back on my club career as being an unsuccessful one, whatever way you look at it," he said bluntly
"I came into the club with a group of players who had won a lot with the club still involved. I wanted to emulate that and whatever way you look at it, I didn’t, y’know.
"I captained the team for a long time, to very little avail unfortunately and I’ll have to live with that. I can still live with the fact that I put a lot of effort in.
"It wasn’t for the lack of trying. I was very lucky with the people I’ve played with in that club, and the club itself - the amount that they looked after me and have given back to me and my family is huge.
"But yeah, coming up here [to Ireland camp] was a bit of a sanctuary – it’s an interesting way to put it.
"It turned into a little bit of a club for me as well, a club away from a club.
"The way that relationships went, the friends that I have up here. When I first started playing for Ireland, it wasn’t the same feeling that it is now."
O'Mahony: The old dog reaches 100 Ireland caps
Ireland face France in six days’ time in what is set to be a championship decider, and then travel to Rome to take on Italy, where a championship or Grand Slam could still be up for grabs.
Munster, who announced Clayton McMillan as new head coach for next season, are toiling in the URC, a home loss to Edinburgh on Friday night the latest blot, and face Ronan O’Gara’s double Champions Cup winners La Rochelle in the Last-16 of the Champions Cup in April.
When the current campaign comes to a close, O’Mahony will take some time off, a well-deserved rest.
"The kids are starting to grow up a little bit and I've missed a huge amount of milestones for them, family occasions, all sorts of stuff.
"So I'm going to enjoy a few months off, make sure I get to all those things I should be at, enjoy my retirement, the period afterwards.
"I'm sure there's going to be bumps on the road.
"As I said, I've known nothing else other than rugby.
"I've been very lucky but at the same time my focus has been very narrow so I'm going to take a break and open up the horizons a little bit."
A new road awaits for the old dog but there’ll surely be a few barks and bites before O’Mahony takes it.
