Brian O’Driscoll had to sell dummy and clear a ruck to win Amy Huberman

He was well used to dictating the play in his storied career as Ireland’s famous number 13, but Brian O’Driscoll has shown that he is equally adept at pulling the strings off the pitch when it comes to his love life.

O’Driscoll, whose autobiography, The Test, is released tomorrow, has revealed that he fabricated a ‘chance’ first encounter with his actress wife Amy Huberman, having seen her on an RTÉ chat show.

The former Ireland, Leinster, and Lions captain told the Ray D’Arcy Show on Today FM that he contacted a friend who worked in PR after Huberman’s appearance on Tubridy Tonight and concocted a meeting with the actress in the Merrion Hotel.

Admitting he was initially nervous about the pretend coincidental meeting, O’Driscoll explained how things did not go as planned.

“I didn’t work out as I would have hoped because two of my buddies came in half-cut: They had a few extra pints that they weren’t meant to have had and kind of hijacked the situation,” said Ireland’s record try scorer.

One of the friends who upstaged O’Driscoll on the night was Barry Twomey, whose death O’Driscoll recalls in the book.

“Barry had come in and completely hijacked the situation at the Merrion,” said O’Driscoll. “He was the funny guy and I barely got a word in, so I had to take him aside and go: ‘Would you stop making me look bad here buddy?’ ”

Undeterred by the first encounter, O’Driscoll met Huberman again at a comedy gig days later and asked The Clinic star for her number.

“After eight weeks I had a fair idea that I wanted to marry her,” he said. “People say that when you know, you know. Genuinely it was a case of that.”

O’Driscoll will be signing copies of The Test at Easons on O’Connell St, Dublin, on Saturday at 12pm.