IRELAND V WALES:No other Irishman can boast three Triple Crowns as well as captaincy of the Lions, but with a talent so rich and rare as Brian O'Driscoll the sense persists that he deserves even more
THERE HAVE been few better Irish rugby players over the last century, and none better in the last decade. He's had an illustrious career, full of personal landmarks and awards, but time waits for no man and at 29 Brian O'Driscoll is as aware as anyone that he is in danger of being slightly unfulfilled.
The last while has been tough for him. Rewind to this point in 2005. Ireland were three wins from three. Leinster had an epic quarter-final win in Toulouse in the making. And he was a shoo-in to captain the Lions. Alas, a year in the centre became a year in the eye of a storm. Ireland imploded, Leinster ran into Munster and we all know what happened with the Lions.
He continued to carry the load into this season, his third as Leinster captain and fifth as Ireland captain, aside from being the talisman and go-to gamebreaker for both sides. But, though no-one tried more manfully in the World Cup, that brought perhaps the most crushing disappointment of his career thus far. No wonder he had arguably the sharpest dip in form in his entire career immediately after.
But he's gradually rediscovered himself, with a little reinvention along the way. He remains Ireland's leading ball carrier, leading offloader and defensive linchpin, but he's become more playmaker than finisher.
This is his 46th week as Ireland captain, so Tuesdays are hardly likely to have him jumping out of bed screaming, "Yippee, it's media day." But this was a good day. He doesn't know why. He just woke up feeling good. He must have had a good night's sleep, he reckons.
The pressure is on again this week but he wears it well, if candidly wondering aloud about the onus of captaincy, the departure of old team-mates, career decisions he's made along the way and how much has been won. Captaincy seems to have become a slightly lonelier place.
He talks about the team being in "one game at a time" mode but not for clichés' sake.
"We got ahead of ourselves a little in the World Cup," he admits, and besides, if Ireland don't win today, he adds, "there's nothing to the last weekend - you're just playing for a bit of pride or third place maybe."
It's been a while since Ireland were in that position, playing out a relatively academic last Six Nations fixture; 2002 to be precise. Before and since, there have been a few near misses: three Triple Crowns yes, but no title; five runners-up finishes and three thirds in the Six Nations since he broke into the team in Australia in 1999. And whatever else, he doesn't have eight more chances coming to him.
The thought has occurred lately that maybe the responsibility of captaining province and country is too much. You wonder if he grows a little weary and his answer is refreshingly honest.
"Yeah, I do. But like I said, none of it bothered me today. I haven't had a lot of those in this Six Nations. I suppose maybe it's getting a bit easier talking because there's more positivity. I suppose that's a natural thing too. There are times when it is a bit tiresome but the good, I think for me, outweighs the bad."
There's also the need to be the main voice in both team rooms or dressing-rooms.
"I do find that it's hard sometimes to come up with fresh material. Because, after 40 odd meetings, guys don't want to hear the same thing over and over. And that's why you've got to go to your senior players and come up with different things . . . it's so much easier to speak when the pressure's not on you. Invariably those people tend to come up with the best points.
"I always remember if Fester (Keith Wood) was speaking and then he looked to someone else to speak, and if I did speak up, invariably I didn't rabbit on, I just made a quick point and to the point, and it had a bit more emphasis to it . . . I try to keep my meetings quite short because there's nothing worse than seeing bored players in a meeting."
You think back to when he first broke into the Ireland team as a whippersnapper of a 20-year-old with a burgeoning reputation, the hat-trick in Paris less than a year later and the vintage performances on the Lions tour of 2001, and you also wonder if a part of him would like to go back to the trenches and return to thinking more selfishly about his own game.
"Yeah, in a big way, and looking at it from a selfish point of view I don't see myself as being captain until the very end of my career. I don't see that as being the case. I suppose there'll be a time at some stage - whether it be my choice or taken out of my hands - when I'll be able to go back and just worry about me. But, inevitably, it's changed now and I can never go back to being that person because any time I'm going to be in a team I'm always going to be a senior player and I'm always going to be a leader of some sort . . . I'll always have to be something of a voice. But I suppose it's a less pressurised situation, it's something that maybe down the line . . . not just yet . . . I'd look forward to."
The popular perception now is that O'Driscoll has lost a fraction of that acceleration that used to see him speed through gaps; indeed he has wistfully and self-deprecatingly alluded to it himself. Maintaining, or at any rate finding, some form as Ireland's dismal World Cup unfolded, he showed glimpses of vintage O'Driscoll in the tries against Namibia and Argentina, but since then, there's not been one in 11 games for Leinster and three for Ireland.
"Definitely this season, in a big way, I've struggled with scoring. It's hard to put your finger on it sometimes. I scored a couple of tries in the World Cup and since then maybe one or two at most, if that. It is nice to score tries, it really is, but at the same time provided they are coming from some source it doesn't really bother me that I'm not scoring them."
With Gordon D'Arcy injured, O'Driscoll has retained his trademark number 13 but switched to inside centre to accommodate Andrew Trimble. This has led to him becoming more of a creative foil for those outside him, as evidenced in the breaks and passes that led to tries by Rob Kearney and Tommy Bowe against the Scots.
"With Trims there I am playing a lot more (at) 12, but I'm enjoying that too. I have to say I am really enjoying playing with Trims too. I suppose it's fresh and he's very easy to appease. I'm not saying that Darce isn't, I'm just saying he (Trimble) is willing to do anything that is asked of him. It's a great attitude he has."
O'Driscoll has gladly let Trimble have some of the limelight outside him and ventures that they've quickly clicked defensively: "He's a seriously good defender. I'm not just talking about being a big hitter, he's a very smart defender. He reads things very well."
Change is good for all of us, in any profession, and there are those who believe O'Driscoll might have benefited from following through on his flirtation with Biarritz over two years ago.
"There's always going to be a twinge of it, always," he admits. "I haven't had an outstanding game this season. I've had a lot of very reasonable games and some good games, but I haven't really had an outstanding game and I suppose you always crave one of those per season and I wonder if that's because I've gone a little bit stale or because of the environment.
"So when things aren't going as brilliantly as they have done you're always going to question one or two things. But what it comes down to is the whole package of my life. It's not just rugby. Rugby is a hugely important component but it's not the be-all and end-all, and I'm happy with the rest of my package."
Today's game offers a renewal of old acquaintances with his first Ireland boss, a thought that makes him reflect almost wearily: "It seems like an eternity ago since he was coach to the national team. Maybe I've had too many knocks on the head in recent years, but I don't remember those days as well as perhaps some in the past. He knew how to get the best out of a side. Certainly I don't think we had the same player capabilities back in those days as we do now, but he still managed to pull some big performances out of us, particularly when we were against the ropes a little bit."
Playing rugby has, he says, become more of a job nowadays: "Some of my good pals are gone from the game now and it can't be the same with them gone. It's different. It would be unfair of me to say it's not as good, because I still really enjoy the rugby and I get the same kick going out on the pitch every time. But maybe the training part, and the element of craic that I used to have with the older guys is now gone.
"Denis and Victor and Reggie and those lads - I was quite close to a lot of them, and it's just different. You're building new relationships with newer guys coming in - that's something you have to do - but when I got in so young these guys were team-mates but they were good friends too. I'm pally with a lot of the guys in the team, but they're not all 'friend friends', I don't socialise with them all. So that has changed."
The retirement of old friends is also a salient reminder that there's less time than there used to be for nailing down some real silverware. The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
"Completely," he agrees, unhesitatingly. "I don't want to go through a career having won a Celtic League and three Triple Crowns. Because it's all well and good being a captain of the Lions and being the most capped Irish captain, but what I would mark myself on is what you have won. And you see teams and the elation of winning trophies and how much it brings a side together and the bonds that you create from that. That's what it's ultimately about.
"And that is a big reason why I stayed with Leinster. First and foremost I felt we had the capabilities but secondly I know what it would mean to me to win with them, as opposed to a Toulouse or a Biarritz or whatever. I just know the difference between the two so, whether in three or four years' time and with hindsight I'll regret my move, I dunno. I'll have to wait and see but it would certainly remove any doubt."
He wouldn't be human therefore if he hadn't cast a few envious glances at his Irish mates and team-mates from Munster when they found their grail in 2006.
"Of course, of course," he admits. "It's inevitable that you're going to have a little bit of envy for that. That will be spoken about for ever. They're still talking about '78 (Munster beating the All Blacks) and that was one game. So, with a European Cup win . . .and I suppose if you knock on the door that many times you're getting to be let in eventually."
A bit like Ireland? "There are teams that have gone by who have been nearly teams for a generation and then disappeared. I just hope to God we won't be one of those teams. And as great as Triple Crowns are, you want to win a Six Nations, you want to win a slam and we still have the side and the capabilities to do it. It's just a matter of getting five games right in one season."
You hope he reaches the end of that rainbow one day.
" Certainly I don't think we had the same player capabilities back in those days as we do now, but he (Warren Gatland) still managed to pull some big performances out of us
Life of Brian
Position: Centre.
Club: UCD RFC.
Province: Leinster.
School: Blackrock College.
Date of birth: 21/01/1979. Height: 5ft 11ins.
Weight: 95kg.
Ireland caps: 82 (since June 1999).
As captain: 45 (Irish record).
Ireland points: 167 (31 tries - Irish record - four drop goals). Six Nations player of the year: 2006 and 2007.
Lions tourist: 2001 (Australia), 2005 (New Zealand, captain).
Lions caps: 7.
Ireland Under-21 caps: 4. Ireland Under-19 caps: 5 (including World Cup win).
Ireland Schools caps: 3.
Leinster Under-20/21 caps: 1.
Official Leinster caps: 99.
Points scored: 208 (41 tries, one drop goal).
European Cup caps: 51 (20 tries).
