O'Driscoll welcomes 'freshened up' regime

RUGBY:Ireland and Leinster captain Brian O'Driscoll was explaining yesterday why this was not a good week for him to read the newspapers. The Genesis Report, as filtered through the IRFU committee, was being kicked about and Leinster, with a sparkling backline that has so far failed to shine, had returned from Edinburgh knowing the knockout stages of the Heineken European are now a remote possibility. Johnny Wattersonreports

Still, the centre has not moved very far from where he left off at Bordeaux. He continues to support the Ireland coach, Eddie O'Sullivan, still believes he is the person to lead Ireland into the Six Nations Championship in a "freshened up" regime.

Cynics would say, "well he would say that, wouldn't he?", but O'Driscoll has always pushed the idea the players should take as much of the World Cup rap as the coach. "I have one hundred per cent faith in the system Eddie puts together and if this report has brought a few things to light that maybe he didn't know about, well that has to be a good thing," said O'Driscoll.

Still nursing a niggling ankle problem that may need rest, O'Driscoll, who admitted he had not fully gone through the report's recommendations, was positive about the aspects of it that have been aired. "You're not always going to hear everything from your players and it's for that reason something like this can help you along the way. Now he (O'Sullivan) knows what he needs to freshen up and what needs to be changed and I think he will do that accordingly.

"Perhaps taking some of the pressure off Eddie, from a backs' point of view, and helping him come up with fresh ideas is a good thing. Eddie has been coach for six years. We've had Declan (Kidney) in and then he (O'Sullivan) decided to take over. I think sometimes he puts too much pressure on himself. It might just ease the pressure from that point of view (appointing a specialist backs coach)."

The players will go through the issues today and will hold a meeting about the content but the captain is also convinced a telling factor going into the World Cup was lack of matches prior to the tournament. His view is that what other countries do is irrelevant because each side has different needs. Semi-finalists Argentina had as few games as Ireland did before the tournament.

"A huge number of them (Argentina players) played in France and perhaps they were happy with the number of games they played in the build-up," said O'Driscoll. "Perhaps they needed the rest more than the games. I didn't play during the summer. I can only talk from my point of view and don't speak for everyone else but . . . I don't really ever hit any decent forms until four or fives games in a season.

"Maybe I was forcing the issue a little bit because I only played the first international against Scotland and then three quarters of a game against a French Club side (Bayonne, where he was deliberately punched) and then I was out for four weeks. So I think if it was the case again that we were to play in another World Cup I'd certainly put forward the idea we'd risk some of the key players picking up knocks in the build-up rather than not playing enough games because I think that has been an issue."

O'Driscoll was also surprised about reports some of the players' views were not canvassed when the report was being compiled by Genesis. "Players weren't asked to contribute? No I was not aware of that. I presumed that it was everyone that was involved in the squad," he said.

For now the questions remain who will come as a backs coach and who will take up the go-between role of manager. On the first issue, O'Driscoll was non-committal. On the manager he said: "I've always had time with Brian O'Brien (former manager). He was someone who would listen to problems. I liked his personality."

Back to the future then.