Leading again from the centre

Gerry Thornley finds Ireland's number 13 quite willing to take or leave the captain's role

Thrust into the captaincy last season, Brian O'Driscoll jokes about how much he misses Friday eve-of-match press conferences particularly, and you know full well he doesn't miss us one little bit. He temporarily returns to the job this week in the absence of Keith Wood for Saturday's encounter with Italy, but the one-time boy wonder is as happy as anyone the bald wonder is back to lead from the front for the World Cup.

Not that O'Driscoll didn't make a decent fist of it. He mightn't say as much as Wood - then again, who does? - but leadership is as much about what you do as what you say, and a 7-1 win-loss record is hard to quibble with. Nevertheless, his own impact wasn't quite as pronounced and Wood's return has allowed O'Driscoll to retreat to the trenches, not least on Fridays.

"Absolutely," he says, when admitting he welcomed Wood's return. "It mightn't have looked it," he adds self-deprecatingly in reference to his unexceptional performance against Wales, "but I was able to concentrate on my own game a little bit more. I'm just as happy to take over again this week but it's not only the captaincy, I'm happy that Fester is back in general."

O'Driscoll is the first to admit that Ireland now need to step up on their performance against Wales. Specifically, O'Driscoll thought there were simply too many errors: "Too many dropped balls, probably a couple of missed first-time tackles that we wouldn't miss in mid-season and just general fitness. You can do as much training as you like but there's nothing quite like match fitness. You need to play a couple of games to get into it. Getting hit, getting back up, that's the thing that takes the most energy out of you, getting up off the ground. That's what we need."

No one was more critical of his own display against the Welsh than O'Driscoll himself, who suggested he might have been culpable of trying to force things.

"I got a little bit frustrated against Wales in that there wasn't a huge amount of space, but I think if that is the case, then try to make holes for other people. Geordan and myself were slagging Maggsy (Kevin Maggs), saying that we made it easy for him against Wales, we were pulling them wide and letting him run up the middle," he adds with a smile, "but there are going to be games when there's going to be more pressure on the outside backs, and there's going to be holes elsewhere, so it's our job to pick those out, and I'm sure we'll make it count."

Needless to say, Eddie O'Sullivan wasn't in the least bit concerned by O'Driscoll's rustiness. The coach has given up the ghost on a creditable alternative, in an Irish number 13 jersey, to "the world's best outside centre", and accordingly is committed to playing him in each warm-up game and each pool game. Given the nature of the Welsh game, O'Driscoll admits he was immediately itching for another one.

"I sat in the dressing-room afterwards and thought I'd like to put things right and have a game as soon as my body feels up to it again. I wasn't even particularly tired, but it was frustrating, and the best thing to do would be to get out on the pitch again and put those things right."

O'Driscoll echoes O'Sullivan's estimate of what they can expect from the Italians. "Invariably they are a physical side, and that's what they try to do, is beat up teams. They make up for what they might be lacking in other areas by their physical nature. You always know the following day that you've been in a game when you play Italy."

Ireland's record try-scorer, currently on 99 points, scored in his previous appearances at Thomond Park, for a Rest of Ireland selection against Munster in 2001 and against Romania last year. Nevertheless, having the unbridled support of the Thomond crowd is a rare-enough experience for a Leinster player.

"I'm sure it will be a strange feeling. I'm sure it will be a packed Thomond and I'm sure it will be a vocal Thomond, so I'm really looking forward to that."

Pressed as to what makes the ground and the crowd different, O'Driscoll muses: "Yeah, certainly passionate. Knowledgeable? Biased, yes," he smiles, "but just that they're nearly involved in the game themselves. Playing against a Munster side they really get behind them, and I think if you give them something to shout about, and you start playing well, they'll really get behind you and help you on your way."

This game is also notable for renewing the 2001 Lions midfield partnership of himself and Rob Henderson, who was also an influential sidekick when O'Driscoll scored his celebrated hat-trick in Paris in 2000. Surprisingly, they've formed a midfield partnership only five times for Ireland and played together in midfield only once since the Lions tour two years and 26 Tests ago - the 44-5 defeat at the Stade de France in April 2002 when Fabien Galthie's side completed the Grand Slam.

Yet O'Driscoll clearly believes the hiatus won't unduly affect their understanding.

"It's weird in that you just get used to playing with a centre partner for a while. I played with Hendo in the build-up to the Lions quite a bit, and then he got injured and Maggsy came in, and I got used to him. But we've been around long enough together and we've mixed and matched, so I know the two boys pretty well.

"I'm very comfortable defending and attacking with both guys. I think Hendo is pretty excited about this game and he's looking forward to putting in a big performance, and he has a big one in him."

The pressure isn't quite so pronounced on O'Driscoll. He should make the cut.