Читать книгу Brian O'driscoll - Marcus Stead - Страница 7

The following year, 2005, was always going to be pivotal in Brian’s career. He was now 25 years old, and the previous few years had seen him mature rapidly as a person; the stature and esteem in which he was held by both his team-mates and rugby fans in Ireland and beyond had risen sharply.

On paper, it looked like being a gruelling 12 months, and expectations were high. Leinster were in with a very real chance of winning the Heineken Cup. The Ireland team looked stronger than ever, and fans were expecting nothing less than their country capturing their first Grand Slam in 57 years.

There was to be no summer break. Brian would undoubtedly be selected for the Lions tour to New Zealand, where they would be looking to win a Test Series against the All Blacks for only the second time.

The year got off to a bad start, when on the evening of New Year’s Day Brian lined up for Leinster to take on old rivals Munster at Musgrave Park. Brian had never found it difficult to psych himself up for matches against Munster, and was fully prepared for the challenging 80 minutes that lay ahead. This was his chance to get an important year off to the best possible start, and he didn’t want to let the opportunity slip through his hands without a fight.

With both sides at full strength and Munster in superb form, it proved to be a typically physical encounter between the traditional rivals, which saw Irish fly-half Ronan O’Gara breaking a bone in his right hand, leaving a serious question mark over whether he would be available for the early Six Nations fixtures which were now only a month away.

Leinster lost the game 19–13, and Brian’s year had got off to the worst possible start as far as he was concerned. Losing is never pleasant, but, with rivalry between the two provinces so intense, the defeat was especially painful to take.

However, Brian had no time to dwell on this defeat as the following week he had to travel to Bath as Leinster’s quest for Heineken Cup glory continued. Things didn’t look good and with four minutes to go Leinster were trailing 23–13. But there was still time to turn it around, and a late surge saw tries from David Holwell and Malcolm O’Kelly to make it 27–23 at the end.

Bath coach John Connolly knew his team had thrown the game away, and was quick to praise Brian’s contribution. In a post-match interview with the BBC, he said, ‘The guys were focused, the effort was phenomenal but the odd mistake cost us the game and the players are incredibly disappointed. Any team that has Brian O’Driscoll and up to six potential Lions in their line-up always has a chance.’

But Brian was far from happy with his performance in the game, and cursed himself for a sloppy pass he made to Girvan Dempsey early on that probably cost his team a try. That said, a win is a win and Brian’s efforts that day played no small part in Leinster’s stunning turnaround in the final few minutes.

In the professional era, matches come thick and fast and there is little time to dwell on defeats or revel in victories. Within a week, Brian would be meeting up with the Ireland squad as they prepared for their Six Nations campaign. On 21 January, just two days before the squad was due to meet, Brian should have been celebrating his 26th birthday. Instead, he opted for a quiet day, knowing that this really wasn’t the time for a night’s boozing with mates. If he and Ireland were serious about completing the Grand Slam, they had to be in the peak of physical fitness, and this meant making sacrifices early on.

Brian enjoyed playing with an iPod given to him by O2, one of Ireland’s sponsors, before heading to the barber’s to cut off the blond locks he had been sporting in favour of a short-back-and-sides look. A serious haircut for a serious man. There was no clowning around now, and Brian used this small gesture as a statement of intent for the challenges that lay ahead.

Two days later, and Brian joined the Ireland squad at the City West hotel in Dublin. This would be his base until the end of the Six Nations.

From now on, each day’s activities would run to a strict schedule. Essentially this meant a daily ritual of eating, training and sleeping. As usual, Brian did not enjoy the prospect of having to be away from home for such a long period of time. The novelty of having everything laid on for him never took long to wear off. He felt the daily training ritual was not especially different to that he underwent at home and he much preferred to be around those closest to him, especially with such a long build-up to the first game of the Six Nations.

Brian has gone on record as saying that he doesn’t necessarily believe that spending long periods together as a squad is the best way to prepare for a game. He points out that in the 1970s international sides put together breathtaking performances on the back of a maximum of just two days together.

It’s easy to see where he’s coming from, but in the professional era few would argue that the highest levels of fitness and the correct diet are essential in preparing for big games and that joining together as a squad early on plays an important part in getting this right. They might not enjoy being away from those closest to them for so long, but it is a fact of life for the modern international rugby player.

Brian’s left-shoulder injury, sustained early in his career, soon came back to haunt him in the days that followed and he wasn’t able to train as rigorously as he would have liked. After each training session, he would apply an electro-magnetic TENS pain-relief gadget to his shoulder to alleviate the persistent problem. This was far from ideal preparation for the tournament.

Brian was the first to put his problems into perspective. Irritating though this was, it was nothing compared to those suffering the effects of the Tsunami disaster just a few weeks earlier, and watching the terrible pictures of the aftermath from his hotel room helped him realise this.

Being captain, and being the biggest ‘celebrity’ in the squad, meant Brian had to do more than his fair share of media work in the lead-up to the tournament. He has never been a natural extrovert and shyness was a problem early on in his career, with his personality never coming across on television. Things had improved as he grew into the captaincy, and by now Brian’s approach to interviews was every bit as professional as his approach to other aspects of being a rugby player.

On the day of the Six Nations press launch, Brian had to make himself available for a number of interviews with journalists from various organisations from around the world. This in itself proved something of a challenge. He was expected to treat each interview with the seriousness of the last one. In all likelihood, this meant being asked exactly the same questions as before, which meant having to give exactly the same answers.

Brian always stuck to the official party line, never speaking out of turn. He knew full well that making one light-hearted comment or poking a bit of fun at the opposition could easily be taken out of context and backfire on him spectacularly, which was exactly what had happened to him the previous year.

In an interview before the Ireland–England game, Brian had made a comment along the lines that an Ireland win would give the prawn-sandwich brigade at Twickenham something to choke on.

Of course, the Celtic nations love nothing more than winding up the ‘posh boys’ of England and his remarks went down well back home. Brian was simply parodying comments made by Roy Keane about Manchester United’s corporate ‘supporters’ some years previously. But his rather lame attempt at humour certainly seemed to psych up his opponents. Lawrence Dallaglio seemed to take it very personally and appeared more angry than usual as he took to the field that day. The remark was blown out of all proportion but it certainly seemed to stick and speculation was rife that it had done serious damage to Brian’s relationship with Sir Clive Woodward.

In the context of those remarks, it came as a huge surprise to Brian when, in the middle of his preparations for the Six Nations, he received a phone call from Clive inviting him to his home in Henley for a chat about the upcoming Lions tour. Brian had no idea what this could mean. Yes, the press had grossly exaggerated the extent of his rift with Clive but he could hardly be described as one of his closest confidants.

Not knowing what to expect, Brian took a flight to Heathrow where Clive picked him up at Arrivals and drove him to his sublime home. The whole evening turned out to be a very relaxed and friendly occasion. The two men just talked frankly about the upcoming Lions tour, with Clive appearing to take a keen interest in which players Brian rated. The alleged falling out of 12 months previously suddenly felt like a million years ago. Then the true purpose of the meeting was revealed.

Clive asked Brian how he felt about captaining the Lions. It was phrased as a hypothetical question rather than an offer, but Brian knew exactly what this meant. The hairs stood up on the back of his neck, and, as he put it, his whole rugby career flashed before him. To captain the Lions is almost certainly the greatest honour any rugby player from Britain or Ireland could ever receive, and now it was practically being offered on a plate to Brian. He answered the question with an enthusiastic ‘Yes’ before going on to say that he was a big believer in the Martin Johnson style of captaincy, but he wasn’t looking to be a clone of him.

The rest of the evening was spent discussing a strategy for the tour. Both men agreed that the tour of New Zealand should be fun. They both knew full well that many players didn’t enjoy the 2001 Lions tour of Australia. This was partly due to a large number of players being marginalised in the midweek side early on. Both men agreed that back then the Lions simply needed more back-room staff to do the job properly. Clive agreed to set up two different teams of coaches and medics. There was obviously no way every member of the squad could play in the Test team, but making every player feel valued and properly supported was vital in making for a happy, coherent squad.

With more emphasis on fun, Clive made sure the tour allowed time to absorb the country and the culture, as well as allowing for a few decent nights out. This didn’t have to mean heavy drinking sessions, but it did mean avoiding a siege mentality within the camp. They were away from home for a long time, and making the tour an enjoyable experience was now considered an important aspect of making it a success on the field. After all, if they were playing a series of matches at home with that length of gap in between, there would certainly be space made for some ‘down time’.

At the end of their meeting, Clive made it clear that he would not be making any final decision on the captaincy until after the Six Nations. But Brian was aware that it was now his to lose, and that, if he remained professional in his leadership of Ireland, the job would be his.

The following day saw the official media launch of the Six Nations in London. Brian was growing sick and tired of constant interviews, press gatherings and posing for pictures by now. The build-up seemed never ending but this was just something he had to learn to put up with. It came as part of the job and that was that.

Brian nevertheless coped well with the many interviews he had to do, until about halfway through the day when he got bored with repeating the same old lines to one journalist after another and decided to say something that would stir up a degree of controversy.

He commented that world champions England had lost their aura of invincibility. This was by no means an outrageous remark, since several former England captains had publicly said exactly the same thing in recent weeks. After all, the England team that would be taking to the field in the Six Nations was missing the likes of Martin Johnson, Jonny Wilkinson and Richard Hill, to name just three of the stars of their World Cup campaign.

Inevitably, the English press spun his words into a severe dig at the current England squad. The reality was that the squad were rebuilding in between World Cups and few could seriously deny that this was an England team in transition, but these remarks were pinned very firmly on Brian and he had to live with the fall-out that followed.

He knew that this would wind up several members of the England squad and that the best way to cope with this would be to fight fire with fire. Ireland had been made pre-tournament favourites and Brian employed the mentality of the All Blacks, who are favourites before just about every match they play. They then embrace this thought and build it into their preparation.

Ireland were pre-tournament favourites and had an experienced, yet developing squad, and, as captain, Brian saw no reason why they couldn’t go on and take the Six Nations by storm.

The campaign was due to start with a trip to Italy. Brian decided to sit out Leinster’s game against Gwent the week before so as not to aggravate his shoulder. This meant he hadn’t had much match practice in the run-up to the Italy game, but he went for the lower-risk strategy of doing a full week’s training instead.

The away trip to Italy was never going to be a walkover. They had come on in leaps and bounds since John Kirwan took over as coach and their days of being the whipping boys of the Six Nations were well and truly over. Worryingly for Brian, they tended to put in their best performance of the Championship in their first match. Italy were fresh, had prepared well and, as it was the first game, were generally free from any significant injury worries within the camp.

This was always likely to be a baptism of fire for Brian. A week before the match, a journalist who had known Brian for many years put it to him that he had matured as a person and would now handle comfortably the sort of situations that would have fazed the Brian O’Driscoll of five years previously. It was more a statement than a question. Brian had been captain for two years by now, but never before had he captained a team as well prepared and well balanced as this. It was up to him to lead by example. The time had come to deliver.

As expected, Italy didn’t roll over easily on home soil. They took an early lead through a Luciano Orquera penalty after seven minutes. Italy had the better of the first quarter before a Ronan O’Gara penalty drew the scores level. With Ireland struggling to maintain possession, it looked like being a long, hard slog to get anything out of the game. Cue Brian O’Driscoll.

Just before the half-hour mark, he ran a dummy scissors and made a breathtaking outside break before passing to Geordan Murphy who scored in the corner. However, an Italian penalty followed, leaving Ireland trailing 9–8 at half-time.

In the second half, Brian really turned up the heat and led by example, and it was his break that set up Peter Stringer’s try. For most of the second half, though, it looked as though Italy could quite easily have snatched the game as they tested the Irish defence time and time again. A Denis Hickie try made sure Ireland didn’t lose the game, but it could hardly be described as a convincing victory. It was a sluggish performance by Ireland and the 28–17 scoreline was flattering to say the least.

Brian’s predecessor as Ireland captain, Keith Wood, was working as a pundit for the BBC and said that if Brian hadn’t been playing it could easily have been a different result. Worryingly, Brian picked up a hamstring injury in the last minute. There was no way Ireland could have lost the match that late on, but Brian took his dedication a tad too far by getting involved scrambling around with the pack in the final seconds. Judging by his team’s performance on the day, he should have thought of the greater good and not taken any unnecessary risks.

Yet this was typical of Brian’s character. He only knows how to play rugby one way, to get stuck in and stay involved for the whole 80 minutes. That night, and during the following morning, he nursed his injury with ice back at the hotel. All he could do was be as still as possible and get bored out of his mind sipping tea.

The flight home was delayed so Brian was left sitting around for even longer than he would have liked. Clive Woodward put in a call asking how bad the injury was. By now it seemed Brian would be laid off for weeks rather than months, and fingers crossed he would be ready to captain the Lions. But for now, there was no hiding the disappointment that he was unlikely to feature much more in Ireland’s Six Nations campaign.

With the rest of the Ireland squad preparing for the next game against Scotland, Brian would spend the week working around the clock with the medics on his hamstring. It soon became clear to all in the Ireland camp that neither Brian nor Gordon D’Arcy was going to feature in the Scotland game, but this was to remain a closely guarded secret all week. After all, why put the Scotland squad at ease by giving them this crucial information sooner than they had to? It seemed far better to let them sweat a little. It was only when the Ireland squad left for Edinburgh on the Thursday that their secret was out.

Instead, Brian and Gordon were off on a little trip of their own, to somewhere very different. On the Sunday, they were to fly out to the Cryotherapy Chambers in Spala, Poland, for five days’ intensive treatment to try to get them fit for the England game.

During Warren Gatland’s reign as Ireland coach, the whole squad had been to the complex for intensive training sessions. It is a gruelling, unforgiving place but the facilities there are state-of-the-art and leave nothing to chance.

It has a well-equipped fitness centre with some added bonuses, such as the ice chambers for cryotherapy, where they can set the temperature to minus 120 degrees, enabling you to triple your workload on any given day. The theory is that the extreme cold boosts your circulation and thereby flushes out the toxins that release chemicals into the system, such as lactic acid. Brian and Gordon hoped the experience would speed up their recovery by up to two weeks, allowing them both to take to the field against England.

Brian checked out of the City West hotel just as the rest of the of the squad headed for Edinburgh, and decided to spend a few days at home before flying off to Poland. He watched the Scotland game there with his sister Jules. Brian has never enjoyed watching matches he should be involved in and this was no exception.

As had been the case all too often in the recent past, Ireland got off to a sloppy start and Scotland took the lead through a Hugo Southwell try. However, the Ireland team recovered as the boys led by stand-in captain Paul O’Connell turned on the style. Ronan O’Gara was back on superb kicking form, and five superb tries saw Ireland come out 40–13 winners. In truth, the scoreline flattered the Scotland performance as Shane Horgan spilled the ball over the line in what was otherwise a great effort by him, and the Irish defence were superb throughout.

Brian flew out to Warsaw early on the Sunday morning, but getting there proved to be an adventure in itself. The IRFU had booked Brian and Gordon under different names to avoid drawing unwanted attention to their trip. Brian became Brendan O’Donovan and Gordon was Graham Delaney.

When Brian went to check in, he didn’t know whether he should keep up the pretence or whether the ground crew were in on the scheme. When asked his name, Brian froze, as though it was a tricky question or he had something dodgy to hide, so he just gave a daft grin.

It didn’t get any easier in the departure lounge. A middle-aged lady came up to him and asked him if he was the young actor in the O2 advert on television. Brian couldn’t wait to get on board, put his earphones in and get back to sleep.

Upon landing in Warsaw, Brian and Gordon faced a two-hour drive to the complex. The journey wasn’t particularly welcoming. The temperature was well below freezing and dirty snow was piled high on the sides of the road amid grim, barren scenery.

For the next four days, the two would undertake a punishing daily routine that usually included no fewer than three cryotherapy sessions per day, combined with fitness work and sessions in the pool, complete with bungee straps and cords. The cryotherapy sessions weren’t a miracle cure by any means, but they did do a great deal to speed up the recovery process.

The challenge was to stay in the chamber for as long as you were able to. Medics were on hand to ensure the players did not stay in for longer than was safe, monitoring their blood pressure closely. At a stretch, Brian could manage eight minutes in the chamber.

At the end of each session, Brian would feel freezing cold and would hop straight on the exercise bike, working frantically to warm himself up. In the evenings, the two would go to a nearby restaurant with their translator. On the way back, it would be pitch black and there was sheet ice everywhere. Brian became very aware of the strange noises coming from the woodlands and felt that slipping on the ice and breaking a leg or being savaged by a pack of Polish wolves would be a strange way to bow out of the Six Nations. Brian hated being in Spala and found it a grim, miserable place, and wasn’t sorry when his four-day stay was over. That said, the trip could be deemed successful. Brian was now well on the road to recovery and had lost half a stone in weight during the week.

The journey back to Warsaw airport proved even more miserable than the journey to Spala. A twin-carriaged bus slid out of control on a roundabout and Brian’s taxi driver slammed into the side of the bus with an almighty thud. Luckily, nobody was seriously hurt but it was a frightening experience for Brian and Gordon to endure.

When he got back to Dublin, Brian received a number of text messages from his team-mates asking him how the trip had gone. He sent them sarcastic replies telling them Spala was gorgeous and that he was planning a holiday there in August. Most of the squad should probably have known better since so many of them had been there at some point over the previous few years.

A few days later, The Times reported that Paul O’Connell was about to be named as captain for the summer’s Lions tour. Of course, those close to Brian knew different but it was still a closely guarded secret. Paul’s captaincy of Ireland in Brian’s absence had been well received and comparisons were regularly being made between him and Martin Johnson, as both players and personalities. Over breakfast that morning, the rest of the squad wound Paul up about the rumours, and told him to put in a good word to Sir Clive. Brian didn’t take the reports too seriously, and knew he was still on course to captain the Lions.

That same day, Brian was declared fit to start against England the following weekend, but Gordon wasn’t quite ready.

Brian didn’t take any unnecessary risks in the days leading up to the game. Come the day, he remained cautious and was still quite worried that his hamstring could give at any time. Lansdowne Road is a notoriously cold place, and Brian knew that standing around for such a long time before the whistle blew was not going to be good for him.

Preliminaries there tended to take longer than at other grounds. The players were first presented to Ireland’s President, Mary MacAleese, after which came the away team’s anthem, followed by Ireland’s two anthems. On a cold February day, this allowed more than enough time for Brian’s hamstring to play up.

The game that followed will be talked about for decades. England had lost their two previous games and Ireland were on a high. The whole squad, Brian more than most, really believed they had what it took to crush England.

An early drop goal from Ronan gave Ireland a slender advantage but England took the lead with a try by Martin Corry. This only stirred Brian up even more. He was now more determined than ever to break England down and Ireland were on the charge for much of the rest of the first half, with Brian leading by example by trying to break through the English back row time and again.

However, it was referee Jonathan Kaplan who became the centre of attention as half-time approached. Mark Cueto thought he had scored after a Charlie Hodgson cross-field kick but Kaplan ruled that he had started in front of the kicker.

England were the stronger team at the start of the second half, and a rare Irish break-out gave Ronan a chance to kick at goal, which he missed. A Charlie Hodgson drop goal extended England’s lead still further, but the tide of the game was about to change dramatically.

Ireland took control of possession and passed the ball around well. Geordan Murphy played a clever dummy on Hodgson, before passing over to Brian who touched down between the posts. Brian’s hard work had paid off and his try was well deserved.

From then on, it was Ireland all the way. Some clumsy kicking from Ronan wasn’t enough to dampen the spirits. Ireland had beaten England and had deserved to win. Several members of the English squad were less than gracious in defeat, and did their best to deflect attention away from their own shortcomings by blaming the referee for the result. Kaplan had disallowed ‘tries’ from Cueto and Josh Lewsey during the game, which, upon closer inspection, pretty much showed he had got the decision correct. If anything, Ireland were hard done by when Kaplan missed Danny Grewcock blocking Ronan on the edge of a ruck.

England coach Andy Robinson led the complaining in the post-match press conference. His team had now lost nine of their last fourteen matches under him and he knew he was under a lot of pressure.

It took several days before any member of the England squad owned up to the painful truth. Martin Corry admitted in an interview that England had ‘stuffed up’ and that the team, not the referee, were responsible for the defeat.

Brian’s heavy involvement in this physical encounter left him feeling very sore the following day, but his hamstring had survived the ordeal and after a session in the pool that afternoon he realised he was in one piece and ready to prepare for the next challenge.

Next up were France at Lansdowne Road, who had just suffered a narrow defeat to Wales, despite playing some of the most exciting attacking rugby the Championship had seen in years.

Brian managed to squeeze in a trip to Twickenham for a North v South Tsunami benefit game. Although he was nominated captain, it would have been foolish to play in the game but his presence there certainly gave the event some welcome publicity. Clive Woodward was coaching the North side and had organised a team dinner, which gave Brian a chance to get to know some of his future Lions team-mates in relaxed circumstances. Brian also had to shoot an advert for Adidas for the Lions tour. He had his reservations about doing the advert when the make-up of the final squad was far from certain, but by now a large part of him was growing to enjoy all the posing and hype these shoots provided. It certainly came as a welcome break from the City West hotel.

In the week that followed, the Grand Slam hype in the media just grew and grew. The squad, and Brian in particular, knew all along it wasn’t out of the question, but the wider public were only just starting to cotton on to how good this Ireland side really was. However, this French side were good, and Ireland were going to have to overcome them without the likes of Horgan, D’Arcy and Maggs. This was always going to be a tough game.

It wasn’t long before Brian was called upon to make his presence felt when after just two minutes he made a try-saving interception after Julien Laharrague went on the charge. A penalty kick from Ronan saw Ireland take an early lead, but France equalised with a drop goal just three minutes later.

Brian was on the receiving end of a high tackle from Yann Delaigue that gave Ronan the opportunity to restore Ireland’s lead after 18 minutes. Yet again, France levelled the scores almost immediately after Simon Easterby was caught offside. French indiscipline allowed Ronan to put his country 9–6 up after 25 minutes, but things were to go rapidly downhill from then on.

Just three minutes later, France put together a brilliant move that ended with a Christophe Dominici try, which was followed by another French try just a few minutes later after some shambolic Irish defending allowed Benoit Baby through to score, putting France 18–9 up at half-time.

Ireland restored some form of respectability early in the second half, courtesy of Ronan’s reliable kicking; however, this was cancelled out by a French penalty after 61 minutes. Ireland were down and out, but Brian wasn’t going to quit until the final whistle had been blown. With just eight minutes to play, and his side out of the game, he broke through three French tackles to score under the posts. Ronan duly converted, putting just two points between the teams, providing a nail-biting final few minutes of the game. Once again, the Irish defence leaked, allowing Dominici to score for France, sealing a 26–19 victory.

The Grand Slam dream was in tatters, leaving Brian at the lowest ebb he had ever felt in his professional career. He had done well enough in the game, and he knew his team had what it took to defeat the French. He also knew that a chance like this only came once in a generation for sides like his. He also had to accept his share of responsibility for the second French try, which was partly due to a sloppy error on his part.

Despite his disappointment, Brian knew he had a professional duty to remain positive for the post-match interviews. The Irish public saw the upcoming game against Wales as a Championship decider and they wanted to hear from Brian that there was still all to play for.

Coach Eddie O’Sullivan was as disappointed as any of his players, but he knew that there simply wasn’t time to dwell on this defeat. He decided that the whole squad needed a two-day mini-break to take things easy and lighten the mood in the camp.

They stayed in the grounds of the City West for the duration of the break. There was golf for those who wanted it, as well as time for massage and sauna sessions. Brian decided to take the opportunity to enjoy a few lie-ins and lounge around for a while.

On the Thursday, the squad flew to Cardiff for the crunch-match against Wales. The sheer number of cameras flashing when they arrived at the airport reminded Brian that this was no ordinary game, and fans from both nations expected big things from their players in two days’ time.

Wales had been breathtaking in the Championship thus far. Brian knew Wales coach Mike Ruddock well from his days at Leinster. In fact, it was Mike who had offered Brian his first-ever professional contract. Mike had got Wales playing attacking, running rugby, making Wales a team that could give every nation on the planet a run for their money for the first time in two decades. Brian knew his side would have their work cut out in this massive game.

The day before the match, the squad tested out the Millennium Stadium pitch. Brian was taken aback by his impressive surroundings, and he said at the time that it put the state of Lansdowne Road to shame. He liked the atmosphere the ground could generate, but this was the professional era and Ireland was now a prosperous country that deserved a national rugby stadium far better than this.

Redevelopment was on the cards within the next few years, but there was talk that Ireland would have to play their games at Twickenham or Cardiff while the work was being carried out. This frustrated Brian, who thought the matches could be played at Croke Park, the home of Gaelic football, just a few miles down the road. At the time, it looked as though this was not going to happen for political reasons stated in Rule 42 of the GAA Constitution. In the end, the GAA voted to allow Croke Park to be used temporarily until 2008 for non-Gaelic sports such as rugby and soccer, while Lansdowne Road was redeveloped, and Ireland would play their home games in the 2007 Six Nations at the stadium, which ranks among the world’s best.

Although Brian greatly admired the surroundings of the Millennium Stadium, he knew that the Welsh crowd would give the home team a massive boost and this would be an intimidating place to play.

On the day, the squad made the short coach journey from the Hilton Hotel to the Millennium Stadium and Brian was struck by the sheer number of people out on the streets of Cardiff wearing red. Welsh rugby had never known a day quite like this, certainly not since Wales’s heyday in the 1970s. This was going to be a massive test for his team.

The atmosphere inside the Millennium Stadium was no less intense. Brian felt the full force of a boisterous Welsh crowd as he led his men on to the pitch. The match that followed certainly lived up to its billing.

Ronan’s early penalty kick gave Ireland the lead and Stephen Jones missed the chance to level the scores with a kick of his own a few minutes later. A drop goal from Gavin Henson brought the scores level.

Ireland had the better of the opening exchanges until the 16th minute when Wales scored a try in bizarre circumstances. Brian impressively turned over the Welsh ball and passed out to Ronan, who took rather too long to put the ball into touch, allowing Gethin Jenkins to charge it down, after which he kicked the ball ahead, patiently allowing it to fall over the line before placing himself on top of it. Hardly the sort of try people had got used to seeing in games of this standard, but the fact was it put Wales in front, leaving Ireland with it all to do. Stephen Jones duly converted, before Gavin Henson put another three points on the board with a mammoth kick from inside his own half.

Brian didn’t disappoint with his level of commitment in trying to get Ireland back into the game when he sent Denis Hickie on the charge with the ball, but Girvan Dempsey was held up on the line by a superb Stephen Jones tackle. However, a while later, Brian let his enthusiasm get the better of him when he came in at the side of a ruck, which resulted in Jones adding three more points to the Wales tally.

Ronan’s kicking was as reliable as it had been for most of the tournament and his penalty narrowed the lead shortly before the break, but there was no hiding the enormous fight back Brian and the team had to mount in the second half.

Things went from bad to worse in the opening exchanges of the second half as two penalties from Jones extended the Wales lead to 26–6, and Ronan didn’t make the task any easier by pushing one wide when they most needed him to be on form.

Anthony Foley had a decent chance to score but was forced into touch by Shane Williams. It was clear by the hour mark this wasn’t going to be Ireland’s day. A Kevin Morgan try sealed Ireland’s fate and by now the scoreline was impossible to turn around with just 20 minutes left to play.

Wales became complacent allowing a close-range try by replacement Marcus Horan to bring the score to a respectable 32–20 with seven minutes left, making it a nervous finale for the Welsh fans. However, Wales held their nerve and the Grand Slam was in the bag, in what was one of the most memorable days in Welsh rugby history.

Brian was not as distraught as one might expect following the defeat. He was stoical and gracious, accepting that his team had been beaten by the better side on the day, and there were no excuses and certainly no English-style whingeing from him or any of the Irish camp. Brian said a sincere well done to his old friend Mike Ruddock at the captain’s reception that night.

The following day, he and the rest of the squad headed for Kehoe’s bar in Dublin for the traditional end-of-tournament wind-down. The purpose of this had become a sort of unofficial debrief and to make sure the players felt good about themselves and the state of Irish rugby for the rest of the season. If any of the players had been feeling downbeat following the Wales defeat, they had certainly snapped out of it by the Sunday night and this was to be an old-fashioned rugby gathering, the sort that had largely disappeared in the professional era, and it was time to have some fun and let themselves go at the end of a long, hard campaign.

Brian and some of the others headed out into Dublin for a proper night out that lasted well into the early hours. Needless to say, Brian took the rest of the day off before returning to training with Leinster on the Tuesday. That night was to be the last time the Ireland squad would see each other and be on the same side for a number of months. The end of the Six Nations also marked the end of another era. The Ireland team manager Brian O’Brien was retiring after five years in the post. A quiet, unflappable yet canny operator, he was somebody who Brian O’Driscoll held in high regard and he was sorry to see him leave the setup.

The Six Nations campaign that promised so much yet ultimately led to disappointment was at an end. The first phase of the most important year of Brian’s career was over. It was time to look to the challenges that he was going to face in the months ahead.