There's a tendency among fans and media alike to go overboard with tributes to departed sporting heroes. As many have said over the past couple of days, Paul O'Connell is not dead, he has a hamstring injury. And while that's factually true, it's easy to see how you could go overboard.
Sporting triumphs give us all so much happiness, as such, it's only natural (even if it is misplaced) that disappointments are matched with a similarly extreme level of sadness, even grief if you want to go that far. Paul O'Connell's absence from the rest of Ireland's World Cup campaign has certainly brought about those kind of feelings for many fans.
Which is why some fans were less than happy to see O'Connell's disappointment up close and personal with RTÉ criticised for this footage published yesterday.
Paul O'Connell leaving the @IrishRugby team hotel a short time ago http://t.co/Z5TOKW6wvbhttps://t.co/S5iGDS42Dl
— RTÉ Rugby (@RTErugby) October 13, 2015
It was fairly powerful footage. Paul O'Connell clearly struggling and looking like he'd really prefer if the camera wasn't there. And perhaps that's the case but, for all the allegations of privacy invasion, it must be noted that O'Connell gave permission for the moment to be filled.
@ballsdotie In fairness the camera-ops there had the decency and respect to ask Paul if it was ok to film him. And he said no problem at all
— Sinéad Kissane (@sineadkissane) October 14, 2015
As TV3's Sinéad Kissane went on to say, that really is just another measure of the man. We don't doubt for a second that Paulie would have preferred to hobble into that car away from the glaring lights but he's far too sound a man to tell the camera crew to feck off.
There is a tendency to eulogise sporting heroes at times of pain and that can go too far sometimes but in this case, it's difficult to know if that's even possible.
