RUGBY/REACTION BRIAN O'DRISCOLL:BRIAN O'DRISCOLL. How often have we watched him come down the corridor in a stadium wearing that smile? This evening it comes with bright enthusiastic eyes. He's not always like this. But these days as captain Leo Cullen is pushed out to do the team talking O'Driscoll can chose his moments.
We saw this O’Driscoll two years ago in Edinburgh after Toulouse. We saw him after Ireland’s Grand Slam win. He may have had that light when he got married, won his first Irish cap or was handed the Ireland captaincy.
Today he is where he wants to be. It doesn’t happen often. There is normally another team to tear down and the need to stay in the moment. Today that moment is now, the future is now, the reasons to train and play is now. It is a rare “now” day and O’Driscoll is smiling. “Greatest rugby memory? It’s up there,” he says. “If you look at the opposition we had to get past to get to the finals – two Aviva Premiership finalists, three semi-finalists from the French league, I think the calibre of the opposition we played against probably stood to us when we needed to raise our game. It’s one you will want to look back in 15 years and go ‘that was a good day’. If you can come back from being down from where we were, there’s something special about that.”
Not just the point swing of 27 that went unanswered was on the centre’s mind, or, their ability to move from ragged and threadbare to flawless and efficient. O’Driscoll also saw that the breadth of the canvas on which the team may have painted their masterpiece made the second-half revival even more blessed. Had he ever seen a swing like it? “No never. I think the magnitude of it was made bigger because it was the Heineken Cup final. That’s what makes it so much sweeter. The second (trophy) is supposed to be harder to win. Beating a lot of the sides we have beaten and being 18 points down at half-time and to be able to come back answers a lot of questions about the character and ability of a team.”
His knee was strapped. He uncharacteristically missed a tackle for one of Northampton’s tries. His best chance of scoring was snuffed by fullback Ben Foden and often he was on the periphery, not his usual place. He doesn’t care. His knee? “It wasn’t 100 per cent but adrenalin is a great thing. I probably didn’t have an outstanding performance but that’s neither here nor there,” he smiles, only too willing to heap praise on Jonny Sexton for breathing life into the team.
“We did feel that in the first half we had them in a little bit of trouble. But we didn’t get to see that because we turned over a lot of ball too easily. We didn’t get beyond third or fourth phase. We were just hurting ourselves and they had the tactics to score. We that knew there was scores in us. Second half proved that.”
“It’s a combination of emotion and desire,” he adds. “Then it’s application of skills and the intensity you bring to the game. You can see it in the difference between the two halves. The difference was huge. Probably we got a little bit lucky and . . . there were a few passes that stuck in the second half that didn’t in the first. Sort of got the impression they were playing out the game so we took it to them.”
He goes to leave but Sexton was on his mind. The outhalf’s 28 points, that included two tries, were just two points short of Diego Dominguez’s record for a Heineken Cup final. “He mentioned this would make it all the more memorable because of what we had to do now, that he was ready for it,” said the Irish captain. “He picked up two tries with a great kicking performance. The control he had – it was a phenomenal second-half performance. He speaks when the time needs it. But I think this time round he was there to be a senior player. I think you need your 10 to be a senior player and a leader. I think he was that person today.”
