Prodigy prepares to embark on a career that leads to greatness

FROM THE ARCHIVE: BRIAN O'DRISCOLL TAKES CENTRE STAGEIn the week when Brian O'Driscoll was named Sports Personality of the Year, we recall GERRY THORNLEY's first interview with the young centre on February 5th, 2000,and Gerry caught up with him again seven weeks later after he had scored a hat-trick of tries to ensure Ireland's first win in Paris for 27 years

HE’S COCKY, which is good, he’s gifted, which is even better, and he should go a long way. Yet, in some respects, as the great young hope of Irish back play you wouldn’t envy him at all.

With a mere two caps and at just 20, it was hoped Brian O’DriscoIl’s speed, low centre of gravity (invariably captured in any picture of him), angles of running and good hands would almost single-handedly ignite the Irish back-line in the World Cup.

It comes with the territory, perhaps, but talk about a big ask.

A degree of allowance has been made for his youth, but the time-honoured tradition of Irish rugby is that we build ’em up to knock ’em down again, invariably putting the tyros through a mid-career valley before, in some cases, they come again.

Last Tuesday over lunch he admitted he had just been quietly reflecting on some advice given to him in Lens.

“I was told, I won’t mention by whom, after the Argentina game that the honeymoon phase was over, which is dead true. Now I’m aware it’s certainly time to start performing. There’s no more complimentary caps here and there. I need to start working for it right now.”

Ask him if the high expectations on the then 20-year-old (he was 21 a fortnight ago) affected his form during the World Cup, and he says: “No, no, I can’t say it did. It’s difficult to explain, because the World Cup flashed by. I didn’t think I had the worst game in the world against the Argentinians. Sure, I did some terrible things in it. I came off the pitch gutted, but I didn’t think I had a shocker or anything.”

Thoughtful in all his responses, that he consented to an interview was a surprise in itself. His previous reluctance to do interviews wasn’t down to self-importance, though, merely a conscious desire to dilute the hype which accompanied his fledgling career.

Nor was the reluctance due to shyness or discomfiture. He smiles readily, has an easy-going manner and doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously, regularly showing a trait for self-deprecation.

As anyone who has even come within passing distance of the O’Driscoll story will know, his father, Frank, was the young lad’s primary influence.

“Very much so – there’s only one Frank O’Driscoll,” says the offspring with a knowing grin.

Frank, a Clontarf outhalf, twice played for Ireland against Argentina, but those were in the days when the IRFU rather arrogantly didn’t award caps for such fixtures.

In any event, father Frank decided to send his son to Blackrock College when he was 12; surprisingly, young Brian had played only soccer and Gaelic up to that point.

In his first training session at Blackrock, he was “thrown into the secondrow”. “I must have been all of 4ft 11in. I was minute. I remember we scored a try and I tried to convince somebody to let me take a place-kick. I knocked it over, and from there I was brought up to the A team and then played on the wing. I was fairly quick in those days, I think out of absolute fear of getting caught. Luckily, I’ve toughened up since, eh?”

Not that his schools’ career was one uninterrupted success story. Indeed, the turning point, surprisingly enough, was taking a year out of the unrivalled Williamstown academy and linking up with the Clontarf under-I6s. “That was the best year of rugby ever. We went on tour and we were a good side; we won the league. That kind of gave me confidence.”

At school he flitted between wing, scrumhalf and calling the shots at outhalf, which he enjoyed the most. He suffered defeat in a Junior Cup final, was on the bench for the final in his first senior year, and in his final year he hit the upright with a drop goal attempt in extra-time of the semi-final defeat to Clongowes.

His tone becomes more hushed as he recalls the experience. Though he will carry the disappointment through his life, he wouldn’t have wanted to do it any differently.

“You see, I was a Blackrock boy. so it’s a different story. Blackrock love that Cup. The blue and white jersey. You want to own one of those at the start and, then, after that, a Cup medal. There’s an aura about that blue and white jersey. There are 190 people in the year and only 15 get one of those.”

For all the scars, O’Driscoll shined, played for the Irish Schools and went on to play for the Irish under-19s in their World Cup triumph of almost two years ago.

What a contrast in two World Cups. “When we got to the final I don’t think we could have been beaten, because we’d gone through so much. It was a great team and we had this confidence instilled in us by Declan Kidney that we just felt we could compete with anybody. We had huge confidence in throwing the ball around from well inside our 22. Not a problem, It was just go out and enjoy it stuff.

"Friends for life made. You don't forget that sort of thing. Looking at the picture afterwards, with the shield saying 'World Cup champions', that was kind of freaky, and singing Ireland's Call. If I had to pick one thing, that would be it."

He wasn’t long making waves in the senior ranks with the Leinster As, though thankfully he was oblivious to the hopes and the hype. “I’m probably glad of that. The hype only came with the Australia game, which was a good thing. What you don’t know about doesn’t faze you.”

He believes his transition to senior rugby was helped-by playing at UCD with some kindred spirits, such as Irish under-19 teammates Shane Moore and Paddy Wallace, in the less rarified and pressurised air of the third division.

The highs have been less commonplace with Leinster and Ireland, but there has been more than enough to keep him hooked.

Leinster’s stock and results have risen in tandem with the arrival of Matt Williams – “an exceptional coach”, who he puts on a par with John McLean and Stephen Aboud as major influences.

For Ireland, there’s been “the incredible high” of his debut in Australia, the World Cup warm-up win over Argentina and his first Test try against the United States, brilliantly caught on camera as he balanced precariously inside the dead-ball line while trying to narrow the conversion angle.

“Humphs (David Humphreys) was the only one who appreciated that while everybody else was giving out to me. I actually got a fright myself.”

He admits to being “perhaps too selfish for outhalf”, yet, against that, try-scoring is not necessarily the ultimate.

“I get more of a buzz from creating something for somebody else to score a try. Knowing myself that I’ve done something good, giving the last pass, having made the break and linked up, that’s what gives me the greatest buzz.”

Veteran internationals often say the second season is the most difficult, though strictly speaking O’DriscolI’s championship campaign is more like an extension of a long first.

“I’ve never experienced Five Nations rugby, so I don’t know how much other people know about me or how much I’m going to be targeted as an individual. But I presume it will be very difficult.”

Enough has already happened, though, for the ending of the honeymoon.

He knows that much.