Lucky Number 13

Even by his exalted standards, 2011 promises to be a massive 12 months for Brian O’Driscoll. In addition to the Magners League and Heineken Cup double that appears to be well within Leinster’s grasp, there’s a Six Nations campaign that starts away in Rome on February 6 and ends with a home March 19 demolition of England – trust me, Mystic Clark knows these things! – and the small matter of the autumn’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, which will hopefully require an Áras an Uachtaráin reception to welcome home Ireland’s conquering heroes. Which doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for chilling at home with the Missus.

“Somebody worked out that we’re going to be away from home for at least a third of the year, but that’s what you sign up for,” he notes as we sit down for a chat in The Exchequer, the D2 bar that his Leinster and Ireland teammate Gordon D’Arcy co-owns and which has been the scene of a good few post-match celebrations. “It’s the nature of my job and it’s the nature of Amy’s too. She was in two or three films there before Christmas, so she was probably away from home as much as me last year. It’d be different maybe if you were trying to raise kids, but at the moment we’ve no problem with bumping into each other every couple of weeks on the stairs!”
Though dressed simply in a t-shirt and jeans, Drico’s making yours truly look like a dustbin-rifling vagrant. As for our relative physiques, let’s not even go there! The original plan for us to meet up before Christmas went out the window when the 31-year-old broke his jaw playing against Argentina at the Aviva. Did he twig straight away what had happened, or was it a case of the adrenaline kicking in and him only realising the extent of the injury afterwards?
“Nah, I knew something was wrong because my jaw wasn’t sitting properly. The lads thought I’d gotten a bang to the head – or had been drinking! – because I was slurring my speech. They were like, ‘What are you saying?’ as I was trying to pass on calls. I was lucky in that it was just a hairline fracture so there was no need to have it wired up and plated. Steak and sandwiches were out for a couple of weeks, so I had a lot of Shepherd’s Pie to keep my strength up.”
As if missing Leinster’s Christmas campaign wasn’t bad enough, Brian had to pass up on Kings Of Leon at the O2.
“Yeah, that was annoying but I got to see Arcade Fire there, which was an amazing gig. They remind me of a folkier Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, whom I’m a huge fan of as well. Their last R.D.S. show was one of the best I’ve ever been to. I was at two gigs in the Olympia – The Coronas when they had the power failure and The Pogues. I also got dragged to see Lady Gaga who I didn’t think I’d be into, but she was great. The show, the voice, the way she engaged the crowd – brilliant.”
Look mate, I don’t stick a number 13 shirt on and try and play outside centre, so less of the music journalist routine, right? My spies in the Ireland camp tell me that it’s Jamie Heaslip who loads up the iPod before games.
“It kinds of varies now but, yeah, Jamie is big into his music – some of which would be of contentious taste! I’ll listen to pretty much anything, just no hardcore garage. Someone who’s really big after games is Christy Moore, especially if our bag men, Johnny O’Hagan or Paddy O’Reilly, who are of the older generation, get their hands on the iPod. Even I who doesn’t have a note in his head can singalong to Christy – and have done on numerous occasions when there haven’t been any media there to hear the din.
“At Leinster the old ghetto-blaster’s been replaced by the guys bringing in their own iPods and headphones if they want to,” he continues. “I was never really one for music before games – I always prefer having a laugh with people up to the last minute.”
So there’s no silently staring at the wall for half-an-hour to get himself into the ‘zone’?
“Nah, for me the whole getting psyched thing never really worked. You do enough concentrating when you’re on the pitch, so I do my pumping up during the warm-up. Just the roar of the crowd as you run on to the pitch is enough to get you focused.”
I remember John O’Shea telling me how elated he felt when the Ireland football team was given its first hard-hat tour of the new Lansdowne. Was it love at first sight for Brian as well?
“I think they’ve done a fantastic job,” he beams. “We’ll all pick holes in it and it’s a little bit of a shame that they couldn’t get the full bowl because of the Havelock Square end, but overall it’s a stadium that you can’t help but be proud of. The dressing-rooms are fantastic; I haven’t seen better hot and cold baths anywhere in the world; and the medical facilities, should you unfortunately need them, like I did, are top class too.”
Have him and the boys got used to calling it the Aviva yet?
“Yeah, certain people are always going to call it Lansdowne but we’ve had it hammered home to us that it’s the Aviva, now that Aviva have paid money to put their name to it. ‘Whenever you’re referring to the old Lansdowne Road, always make sure you bring the Aviva into the same sentence’ – that’s what we’ve been told and fair enough.”
It’s been argued that the old Lansdowne Road being so skuzzy gave Ireland a psychological advantage against teams that weren’t used to grounds stinking of wee?
“The dressing-rooms had to be a certain spec so they were never that tragic, but there were definitely cases of teams used to playing in some of the best stadia in the world being intimidated by having the crowd wedged in on top of them, and the wind and the rain swirling around and changing direction all the time. You had to play in the same conditions but had the majority of the place roaring for you, so it did give us a bit of an edge.”
Talking of the old Lansdowne Roar, how disappointed were the team that two of their autumn internationals were played in front of less than full houses?
“For the 11 years I’ve been playing for Ireland it’s been a given that our home games have been full or close to full regardless of the opposition. This was the first time we didn’t have that and it was a great shame because the bigger the crowd, the bigger the buzz you get off them. The cheer you get from a full stadium definitely affects the team.”
Does Brian blame the IRFU for charging too much?
“I think they blame themselves. I don’t have to go pointing fingers. They realise what an error they made and hopefully for the Six Nations they’ll put that right. I’m certainly not going to blame supporters for not fronting up money that they didn’t have. Their loyalty’s never been in question before and it certainly isn’t now.”
One of the drawbacks of a new stadium being that it has to be paid for.
“It does. I don’t know the breakdown of how many years they’re looking to have it paid off in, but maybe they need to extend it by a few. What, essentially, is the hurry? We need to have packed stadia on a continual basis – (A) For revenue and (B) To maintain the enthusiasm for rugby that exists in this country. Don’t forget that half-full stadia also have an impact on people watching at home on the telly.”
It may be a non-issue after Fianna Fáil and the Greens get their coalition asses whooped in the General Election, but what’s Drico’s reaction to current Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan wanting Ireland games to be free-to-air?
“It’s dangerous territory,” he warns. “While, again, I don’t know the minutiae, my understanding is that it could have a huge impact on the IRFU and the FAI in terms of revenue streaming and specifically the existing deals they have in place with the likes of RTÉ and Sky Sports. I wonder if the Minister is fully aware of how dependent the grassroots of both games are on that money trickling down to them? That, from the briefing we were given by the IRFU media people, would be my main concern.”
The IRFU have also warned of the consequences if – as threatened – professional sportspeople here are no longer able to claim back 40% of the tax they paid during their 10 most lucrative years once they’ve retired.
“Players, to a degree, are going to go where the big money is,” O’Driscoll reflects. “The Sportsmen’s Exemption scheme encourages our guys to commit to provincial teams where they play as units that then feed into the national side. I can’t speak for anyone else but from my own point of view, it’s definitely had an effect on me staying in Ireland.”
Back in 2002, Brian very nearly quit Leinster for Biarritz where he was semi-paraded in front of the media. What exactly happened there?
“To be honest with you, the whole Biarritz thing was a little embarrassing,” he confesses. “I went down to have a chat with them and see what their set-up was like, as I did with another club, and when I got there, their President invited me up in front of 200 people at the pre-match lunch to hold aloft the Super 14 trophy they’d won the previous season. Needless to say, pictures were taken but I couldn’t really say ‘no’. Next he was asking me, ‘Will you take the traditional drop kick-off before the game?’ Again, I’m thinking, ‘If there’s a chance I might be coming here I don’t want to step on toes and insult them’. He was trying to get me into a Biarritz jersey for this, which is where I went, ‘Hang on a second!’ I did do the kick-off though, and as a result some of the Biarritz boys thought I’d signed for them.
“People probably don’t know this, but in subsequent years, when I absolutely contemplated going, I snuck down there when there was no hoopla and saw another couple of clubs as well.”
Now that his old Leinster coach Michael Cheika has taken up residence there, might he consider a season at Stade Francais?
“Michael is essentially the reason I ended up staying at Leinster. I’d been a little bit disillusioned as to where we were going, but when he took over in 2005 I decided to give it a season to see what he was like. We started playing a different type of rugby, things behind the scenes got rolling and I signed for another four years. The Magners League and the Heineken Cup wins followed after that, so we’ve an enormous amount to thank Michael for.”
The general consensus following the Autumn Internationals is that Ireland need to step it up several gears if they’re to avoid having a barren 2011. Are the prophesiers of Six Nations/World Cup gloom reading too much into what were essentially friendlies?
“‘Friendly’ is a very dangerous word in a rugby context. Nobody’s friendly about anything! There’s a little bit more spark to a Six Nations game because there’s a trophy at the end of it, but I’ve never been part of an Ireland side that’s not hellbent on victory. Especially against Southern Hemisphere opposition, who we don’t get to play very often and traditionally have struggled against. Take it from someone whose body knows, there was plenty of bite in all those games!”
While ending in an 18-38 defeat, the New Zealand match in November demonstrated that Ireland have the wherewithal to breach arguably the best defence in the world. Did it go some of the way towards exorcising memories of June’s record 66-28 reversal against the All Blacks?
“No! That was and remains one of the worst moments of my life. I remember being behind the posts thinking, ‘This is a nightmare scenario and we’re into damage control’. It was a case of getting back a little bit of pride, and in fairness we outscored them in the second-half and played some fairly decent stuff.”
Is that drubbing by New Zealand the worst tonking he’s taken as a player?
“There was another horrible one in 2002 against England at Twickenham when they thrashed us 45-11. You just have to put those games behind you and move on to the next one, which we did to certain extent against the All Blacks in November. I thought we did a fairly good job of living with them until that unbelievable 15 or 20 minutes of theirs. The thing I’ve always struggled with about them is that they score these easy tries. I was trying to put my finger on it and wondering, ‘Why do we make it so hard for ourselves by defending the really tough plays and then giving them simple scores?’ It’s just a wearing down process. When you’re knocking on the door that many times, you’re going to be let in once or twice.”
How do you go about minimising the effectiveness of somebody like Dan Carter who, pound for pound, has to be the best rugby player in the world at the moment?
“First and foremost, you have to stop his source of ball. All players look good when they’ve time and space, and New Zealand put it on a platter for him. He has an extra second or two to make all these decisions, so you have to slow the ruck ball down, make sure your defensive line gets into place… allthose type of things.
“Gone are the days when you have acceptable defeats, irrespective of the fact that in the All Blacks game the scoreline probably did flatter them a little. If we can put 80 minutes of that sort of performance together though, we’ll be a tough team to beat.”
Have France suddenly become rubbish because Australia annihilated them 59-16?
“Nonsense!” he harrumphs. “They threw the towel in early on, which just shows what Australia can do to you when you don’t put up a bit of a fight. They did embarrass themselves, but that’s dangerous. The French are a bit of an anomaly. They can be majestic as they were against us last year or they just fall apart at the seams. The key when we meet them on February 13 in the Aviva will be getting a good start. If you can get some scores up, the heads tend to drop. We had a chance last year to open the scoring when Gordon had a break through and it was a chase to the line, but the ball bounced the wrong way and they were able to touch it down. 7-0 over in France would have quieted the crowd down and possibly have led to a different outcome. You’ve got to make that Gallic temperament work against them.”
Neck on chopping-block time – can Ireland win the Six Nations?
“Of course we can,” Brian says with nary a second’s hesitation. “When we did win it in 2009 what worked in our favour was (A) We had very few injuries and (B) We really didn’t get ahead of ourselves. That’s how we need to approach it again – ‘Italy. Grand, let’s not worry about any of the others and concentrate on that’. What you don’t want is any hiccups early on because it’s a real momentum competition.”
Supporters being totally rubbish at not getting ahead of themselves, the focus is already on the post-Paddy’s Day smiting of the Old Enemy.
“Yeah, people have picked up on England being our last game and think it’s a formality because of our recent record against them, but it’ll be anything but that.”
They certainly looked pretty tasty against the Aussies.
“I didn’t see all of that game, but I’m told they were fairly impressive. They’re definitely a side on the up and have a real pride in wearing the white jersey.”
Will the Six Nations be totally autonomous or, given the year that’s in it, a glorified part of Ireland’s World Cup preparations?
“It’s technically autonomous, but there’s definitely a feeder effect going into the World Cup,” he reflects. “You want your form to be good, although it was good in 2007 when, but for a last-gasp French try against Scotland, we’d have won the championship. Then we went and butchered it.”
Has he worked out exactly what went wrong during the France World Cup?
“A big mistake we made is that we didn’t start playing rugby early enough. There was too much of an onus on, ‘Right, all these teams are so huge, we have to get huge as well’. We literally did six weeks of pre-season where we barely touched the ball. We’re not gym rats, we’re rugby players. That was the thing I enjoyed this year at Leinster with Joe Schmidt coming on board as coach – all our fitness work was done through rugby-specific drills. There was a little bit of extra horrible running, but more often than not it was ball-related stuff. That hones your skills for being able to react to situations when you’re fatigued and still have to play ball. That’s what we do, we’re not weightlifters!”
A lot of pundits, professional and armchair alike, are of the opinion that it’s not just Leinster’s training methods the national side should be emulating. Is there a case for Ireland playing a more expansive type of rugby?
“It’s horses for courses,” Brian avers. “You’ve to play to your strengths depending on what they are within teams. When you’re looking at certain Munster and Ulster guys coming into the pack who are big ball carriers, there’s potential for playing a power game. At the same time, the standard of Heineken Cup rugby and international rugby is worlds apart. The highest intensity of a Test match and the highest intensity of a European match are still a good distance apart and you can’t just move a game style from provincial rugby and expect it to fit. There’s scope for maybe playing a little bit more of an elaborate game, but at the same time there are lots of other determining factors.”
Would he agree that the All Blacks are the scorchingly hot favourites to get their paws on the William Webb Ellis Cup?
“You’d be a mad man not to think they are. They’re the hot favourites in every World Cup. All of which means that come September they’ll be under insane pressure. I can’t imagine what the country will be like in terms of its expectations.”
Something that O’Driscoll is adamant he won’t be thinking about in the run-up to the World Cup is the infamous ‘spearing’ incident, which brought his 2005 captaincy of the Lions to a painfully premature end.
“It’s a non-issue and has been for a long-time. I met Tana (Umaga) unexpectedly a couple of years ago during Leinster’s pre-season visit to Nice and shook his hand. You have to be the bigger man sometimes and just go, ‘howaya?’”
Did they discuss the obvious elephant in the room – or in this case on the pitch?
“‘I haven’t seen you since that spear tackle, how’s things…’ No, we didn’t have that conversation! Listen, it’s definitely a fait accompli. I don’t worry about it any more and maybe it’s time for other people to let it drop as well.”
Is there a rugby equivalent of Seamus Coleman waiting to stake a last-minute claim for a place in the World Cup squad?
“There are a couple of really good young lads, but they’re in provincial academies rather than the national one we had in my day, so I can’t see them making that leap in such a short space of time. I’d say that Declan already knows 27 or 28 of his squad.”
Drico’s recent heroics haven’t been confined to the pitch, with a woman ringing up Newstalk before Christmas to report how the Ireland captain had pushed her snow-trapped car over Leeson Street Bridge. Needless to say, the faltering vehicle wan’t a Lexus, the luxury marque with which Brian has a lucrative deal as brand ambassador!
“They said Leeson Street but it was actually Ranelagh Bridge,” he smiles. “I wasn’t expecting the lady to contact the media, but I can think of worse publicity! I’d be pissed off though if I were one of the two guys also pushing who didn’t get the plaudits.”
Does the media’s insistence on portraying Brian and his good lady wife as the Irish Posh ‘n’ Becks amuse or annoy him?
“We’ve no control over what people say about that sort of thing. It just happens that Amy’s a successful actress and writer and I play sport. It’s not a thousandth of the magnitude of those two people you mentioned in England or LA or wherever they happen to be this week! We just try to live our lives as normally as is possible.”
Was he surprised that the Irish Independent, among others, devoted no fewer than 14 of its pages last year to their wedding?
“I suppose it’s flattery in a way. Like most people would I think, we had a quick flick to see the pictures but we were too busy having fun to be hanging on their every word! We certainly didn’t count the number of pages and go, ‘Oh, only 14!’”
Did he feel sorry for Ronan O’Gara a couple of years ago when his marital problems were splashed all over the front-pages?
“Yeah, sure. Maintaining a private life is very difficult. What you try and do is make yourself available for pictures and interviews at events, in the hope that when you’re off duty, so to speak, you’ll be left alone. What irritates me is like last month when I had bagfuls of Christmas shopping and I spotted this guy maneuvering his way through the people on the pavement to take a picture. I tried to give him the slip by disappearing into the Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre, but he followed me in and tells me he’s going to get the shot, so I might as well deal with it. I said, ‘What? Just leave me alone. I give you enough of my time at other things’. And he more or less laughed in my face.”
Being a Clontarf lad, I imagine he would’ve known Gerry Ryan.
“I did Ryan Confidential with Gerry and would’ve known him from out and about,” he nods. “I thought some of the coverage relating to his death was absolutely disgusting. Again it’s not something I know the ins and outs of, but I don’t feel as if the toxicology report should be made public knowledge. But that’s tabloid sensationalism for you. All of those papers are bought essentially on what’s said on the front-page. It’s four or five words that sell.”
When Hot Press recently met Phil Neville, who’s only a year older than Drico, he was busy doing his coaching badges, finessing his punditry skills and generally preparing for when he hangs his boots up. Is Brian giving similar thought to the future?
“Trying to shape it, yeah. I had considered retiring after the World Cup, but I’m having such a great time with Leinster that that’s definitely been put on ‘hold’. First and foremost you have to decide what you want to do. Nothing’s going to replace the buzz of running out into a packed Aviva or Millenium Stadium or Stade de France, but is there something you feel passionate about that will at least part-compensate for that? I love going to training because I know I’ll have a good laugh with the lads and the endorphin release I get from doing physical exercise is addictive. I mightn’t love it going into the session, but the feeling you get at the end of it is like a drug itself. So, it’s trying to replace that.”
Can he ever imagine himself coaching Leinster or Ireland?
“Never say never, but I don’t think so. While I like to think I have a certain knowledge that would be beneficial to pass on, I’m not sure if I want to take on that sort of responsibility. I’ve had to live my life according to a schedule that I don’t have any control over. I’m told when I can holiday – the only one I’ve ever booked more than two weeks in advance is my honeymoon! The thought of somebody going, ‘We’re off to New York next month, do you want to come too?’ and me actually being able to say, ‘Yes!’ really excites me. The first January I’m not playing I’m going to go skiing. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do but couldn’t, because of both the time-off factor and the fear that I’d come home in a body-cast!
“On the other hand, I’m afraid that when I stop playing the inner fat person in me will be revealed. Tommy Bowe can eat everything that’s put in front of him and not gain weight, but sadly not me!”