O'Driscoll taking nothing for granted

RUGBY: JOHNNY WATTERSONfinds the Ireland captain not thinking of the past or the future as he ponders the upcoming Rugby World Cup – just the now

THIS SPACE for Brian O’Driscoll is a little awkward right now. The squad hasn’t yet been picked and his reluctance to assume a fourth World Cup is a formality for him draws a clear warning.

“I have to get picked first,” he says with no hint of mischief. O’Driscoll didn’t play against Scotland last Saturday. Still, a BBC pundit named him as one of the best defensive centres in world rugby.

Of the 60 or so people mulling around the team headquarters at Carton House yesterday, O’Driscoll would have been quite the most conservative in his view on Declan Kidney’s deep attraction for his ability. Longevity breeds caution.

Injuries aside, and he is carrying one that may take him out of this weekend’s match against France in Bordeaux, the Ireland captain will arrive in New Zealand in the knowledge it will probably be his last World Cup. But as he’s often said, it is the now that interests him, the now in which he lives. The “I have to get picked first” is a prime ‘O’Driscollism’.

Returning to Bordeaux and a miserable month of memories of RWC 2007 can’t even prick that axiom. “I think those memories are well and truly banished,” he says of Ireland’s struggle through the 2007 pool in the heart of the wine region.

“You have to shelve everything, good and bad things, and move on with life.”

So he has, but a neck injury prevents him from moving at his own pace, although at this point, haste to get back is of little benefit.

“You’d probably have to think that maybe another week’s rehab would be beneficial,” he says. “I haven’t officially been ruled out yet, but certainly from my point of view you’d think it would be unlikely. Hopefully I’ll be fighting fit and ready to go for the following week.

“The buck stops with the coach who selects the team. He is gathering all the relevant information. He’ll talk to me as well as to how I’m feeling.”

O’Driscoll’s first World Cup was in 1999 as a 20 year old. Now at 32, he has both watched and been a catalyst in the evolution. He is the highest scoring international centre of all time, has the record for the most tries in the Six Nations, and declined the wedding invitation to the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton to prepare for a Heineken Cup semi-final. Respect.

Rugby now, he acknowledges, is a different animal to that of his debut World Cup.

“Very, very different world,” he nods. “It’s a different sport we’re playing. It’s changed so dramatically. You can look back at it and smile at certain times from those early days of preparation and professionalism and how the game has just moved on to a completely different level.

“I would say the mentality has changed. I would definitely think the mentality is that we feel as though if we can play really well and play to our ability, that we are a match for anyone in the world.

“That’s probably something different from back in the early years. There was always an acceptance of running the top teams close. That’s definitely dead and buried. Now it’s about winning and winning only.”

O’Driscoll characterises the Irish team attitude, influenced as much by the exterior mode of softly, softly Kidney brings to his public discussion as much as his own experience.

The captain believes in the squad but unlike four years ago, players have been cautioned about shouting it too loudly. Confidence bordering on boastful is a failed philosophy in the Irish camp. It doesn’t fit the jersey, doesn’t go well with the Irish make-up, and it’s not a position in which the team very often finds itself. It was an interesting if alien doctrine, Celtic Tiger brash. Things are now more appropriately mute.

“I think it was probably a very un-Irish thing we did four years ago,” he says. “We had a relatively good Six Nations, got pipped in the last minute of the final game, and yeah, I think we probably fell into the trap of doing something that is innately not an Irish attribute: talking ourselves up.

“Some guys whose first World Cup it’s going to be are going to get excited and are happy about where we’re going. You have to let them speak their minds. You’ll probably see the guys that were involved in 2007 are a little bit more low-key in the build-up, the talk and expectation of our chances because of what happened four years ago.”

A big canvas painted by small strokes. On that O’Driscoll is not for turning.

“You’re better off plugging along and worrying about the now,” he repeats. “I’m a big believer in that.” Now. We know.