EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
BRIAN O’DRISCOLL
LIFE OF
BRIAN
Irish skipper Brian O’Driscoll looks
ahead to the Six Nations and further
afield to this summer’s Lions tour
A decade on from your debut you are
rated as Ireland’s finest back since
Mike Gibson. Have you ever gone
to him for advice?
“I’ve done stuff with Mike, and
occasionally I get a phone call from him.
He thinks so much about rugby that it
has to have an outlet, and I’m happy to
be that outlet. It’s not so much seeking
advice, as sharing information. I try to
do it myself with younger players. As a
young guy I always thought experience
was overrated. As an older player I
now think it’s very underrated.”
Is it harder to keep yourself injury
free as the years pass by?
“You’re never 100 per cent fit at my age.
You can be playing with snapped
tendons in your finger, as I was for six
months, and no one ever knows. People
question your passing. I was just happy
to catch the ball. But the aim is to get as
close as you can to 100 per cent. The
older you get the more you have to
look after yourself. It’s part and parcel
of life. I have to have daily treatment
on my hamstring, do lots of stretching.
But I’ve lost a few pounds and am back
down to what I’d consider to be my
fighting weight.”
Does your game change as you
get older?
“I’m not as quick as I was as a 22-year-old, but obviously my knowledge of the
game is greater now than it was then.
I’ve run such and such a line 70 times in
games, so I have a lot of ideas about
how I want to break down a defence.
I’ve changed, but not necessarily
for the worse.”
You’ve experienced hounding by the
media. What advice would you give
England’s Danny Cipriani who is going
through the same thing?
“You need to keep your game in order.
I’ve heard Danny has been doing a bit of
front and back page stuff. That’s all well
and good I suppose when you’re playing
well. I speak from a little bit of
experience. I’ve made a few mistakes
along the way. The media are your
friends when things are going great for
you, but they’ll jump on your back when
your rugby starts failing a little bit.
Danny’s a young man so he’s plenty of
living to be doing. But he needs to listen
to people who have been in that
situation. It is a learning curve and what
I learned is that people forgive you for
making a mistake once – not twice.”
How did the attention affect you
early in your career?
“I have changed. I’ve become more
hard-nosed. I don’t mind comments
about my rugby because that’s my job
but the invasion into my privacy got me
down at the start. I don’t really want to
go into it in detail but I’ve no way of
getting back to the people who have
read it to tell them the truth. That’s hard
going. People have a sense of the
person they think I am, yet they don’t
know me at all.”
The Lions tour South Africa in the
summer. How much of an incentive
is there to succeed over there after
the disappointments of the trip
to New Zealand?
“I’d not say that there was unfinished
business on my part because that’s just
not the way I think about things. But
what does drive me is to be involved in a
winning Lions series. I’ve not managed
that yet. There’s no point being selected
if you don’t get out there and win. Of
course, I’d definitely love to be involved
so all you can do is chase a bit of form
and try to build through the season.
There was a time when I went through a
bit of a grieving process – there was �
The Irish captain
poses with the
Six Nations
Triple Crown
38 / CLASSIC SPORTS SERIES