Rugby:Ireland coach Declan Kidney would love Brian O'Driscoll to hang around for another year after his man of the match display in the victory over Wales in Cardiff showed he still has so much to offer at international level.

The 34-year-old rolled back the years with another stunning performance, scoring his 46th international try and working tirelessly in defence as Ireland looked to stem the tide as Wales launched wave after wave of second-half attacks.

He even had time to fill in at scrumhalf after Conor Murray was sin-binned for the final 10 minutes.

O’Driscoll hinted this week that this may be his last Six Nations campaign, a decision Kidney hopes is not binding just yet.

Kidney said: “Brian will make up his own mind. I would not like to sway him one way over the other.

The bottom line is you would love to have the guy around forever wouldn’t you? But if you look at the performance he put in today, that is not easy on the body.

“Huge credit to him, given the amount of game time he has had, to come out and give such an international class performance like he did today.

“It is wrong to say it doesn’t surprise you, as normally you should not be able to pull out a performance like that with the amount of game time he has under his belt. With Brian it is just a privilege to be working with him.”

Wales assistant coach Shaun Edwards was also fulsome in his praise of the Leinster player.

He said: “I thought he was the difference between the two teams, I wish someone had left him in Ireland.”

Kidney went on to cool any talk of a potential Grand Slam, despite facing France and England on home soil this year.

He said: “I don’t buy into that because it means we should not bother every other year as we have no chance.

“If you look at the second half here, we still have a lot of work to do. England and France are playing well and we still have to go to Murrayfield where we lost the last time we were up there.”