Really should have mentioned this here given its his thread.
O'Driscoll is irreplaceable. Although his legs have gone and he's a good five years past his best, last week vs Italy we saw a game that was very tight until he opened it up with two beautiful hand offs for the first half tries. Then his last action was another deft flick to set up a third. The man can barely run and he's been man of the match in the last two tests.
What he does he makes look easy, but if it were that easy others would do it...they dont. I fear Ireland will become predictable again as we were pre O'Driscoll...matching teams with workrate, desire etc but lacking the creative cutting edge. With a smaller pool of players to choose from the liklihood of unearthing a gem is that bit more remote. He transformed Irish Rugby literally singlehandly..the record number of tries doesn't even come close to telling the story of his contribution. The biggest quality by far is the creativity he provided...games that were going nowhere or were bogged down, he would do something. Spot a gap, see a runner, dummy/disguised pass...he had everything and he kept adding stuff to his game. When he could no longer make the breaks himself he became that bit more cute with his passes. There is now a gaping hole in midfield and tbh I can't see us being remotely competitive again.
O'Driscoll is irreplaceable. Although his legs have gone and he's a good five years past his best, last week vs Italy we saw a game that was very tight until he opened it up with two beautiful hand offs for the first half tries. Then his last action was another deft flick to set up a third. The man can barely run and he's been man of the match in the last two tests.
What he does he makes look easy, but if it were that easy others would do it...they dont. I fear Ireland will become predictable again as we were pre O'Driscoll...matching teams with workrate, desire etc but lacking the creative cutting edge. With a smaller pool of players to choose from the liklihood of unearthing a gem is that bit more remote. He transformed Irish Rugby literally singlehandly..the record number of tries doesn't even come close to telling the story of his contribution. The biggest quality by far is the creativity he provided...games that were going nowhere or were bogged down, he would do something. Spot a gap, see a runner, dummy/disguised pass...he had everything and he kept adding stuff to his game. When he could no longer make the breaks himself he became that bit more cute with his passes. There is now a gaping hole in midfield and tbh I can't see us being remotely competitive again.
