When John Cooney arrived at Ulster in the summer of 2017, he famously said that he would rather have big boots to fill than small ones.
The scrum-half, who was joining the third province of his then nomadic career, had been brought north from Connacht to replace Ulster legend Ruan Pienaar.
The manner in which the Springbok had been forced to depart Kingspan Stadium had left a sour taste in the mouths of supporters and it says much about Cooney’s early contributions that he filled the void in the nine jersey seamlessly.
The native Dubliner instantly looked at home in Belfast, seemingly quick to take the city to his heart with the Ulster fanbase responding in kind.
Across the first half of his eight years with the side, there were few scrum-halves in Europe displaying better form.
A player who seemed to lift his game on the big stage such as the Champions Cup, Covid-19 halted his progress at the worst possible time.
He had looked set to start for Ireland against Italy in the Six Nations in March of 2020 but, when the game resumed after lockdown, his chances at international level appeared to have diminished and in the end the last of his 11 caps was in the final game before the pandemic.
Losing his place in the Ulster side for the Pro12 final that same year will have been a bitter pill to swallow too but his passion for his adopted province never seemed to waver.
A Heineken Cup winner at Leinster and league champion with Connacht, the 34-year-old never managed silverware at Ulster but, neither that nor his lack of international recognition, will diminish his standing among Ulster fans.
Ultimately, the man who replaced Pienaar turned out to be the province’s best signing since the South African World Cup winner.
