O’Driscoll rubbishes rumours of French move

BRIAN O’DRISCOLL has rejected speculation of a move to France when his IRFU contract expires at the end of the season.

The Irish skipper has been linked with Biarritz following a highly publicised visit to the club and comments by their president Marcel Martin.

"I have not been in any contract negotiations," O'Driscoll said yesterday.

"As far as I'm concerned I am a Leinster player for the foreseeable future and any comments so far made to the contrary were not made on my behalf.

"Where I will play next year is an ongoing thought process, but at the moment my main aim is to get back from injury."

The injured centre also weighed into the criticism of Clive Woodward by claiming the Lions boss made a series of blunders that cost them the series against the All Blacks.

Fellow Lion Gavin Henson launched the first salvo against World Cup winner Woodward by slamming his methods and match tactics during the ill-fated tour.

Now Lions skipper O'Driscoll has spoken for the first time about his relationship with Woodward since returning from New Zealand.

And he believes Woodward knows only too well that he got things very wrong on the tour that ended with a humiliating 3-0 whitewash at the hands of Graham Henry's men.

O'Driscoll also spoke of his simmering anger towards All Black pair Tana Umaga and Keven Mealamu over the tackle that ended his tour, and questioned the wisdom of asking spin doctor Alastair Campbell to give a team talk following the first test defeat.

But the Ireland captain saved his most stinging comments for Welsh prima donna Gavin Henson, who he reckons broke a strict "code" among the Lions by criticising his team mates.

In his forthcoming book My Grand Slam Year, Henson reckons too many of the Lions were "in love" with the sound of their own voices.

But O'Driscoll, who also has a book coming out this month, said: "I have a few comments to make on how I thought the tour went but none of them are criticising my team mates.

"You don't do yourself any favours by giving your opinions in a book rather than saying it to their faces.

"I am not sure if it is down to Gavin's inexperience but I don't think you would see someone like Jason Robinson doing it. And I don't think some of the other younger guys would have done it. "

However, O'Driscoll has also questioned Woodward's master plan to beat New Zealand and in particular the decision to ask media guru Campbell to speak to the squad after the first test defeat.

"I can understand some people thinking Alastair Campbell was not the right selection to give a team talk because his experience was not in rugby, it was in media," said O'Driscoll at yesterday's launch of the Heineken Cup in Cardiff.

"At the time we needed something to pick us up although I am not sure if that was the right way to go about it.

"I can see why some players had a problem with that team talk.

"In hindsight, things should have been done differently.

"People make mistakes and you have to live by that.

"But I don't think I am particularly critical about what Clive did.

"Clive realised himself he had made some mistakes and second time around he would have done things differently. It's a more objective account.

"It was a great opportunity to go down to New Zealand and win a test series. I truly believed that. But we didn't get some of the components right to be able to do that.

"We needed to play together a little bit more. Clive came with the thought that we needed to surprise the All Blacks but they were a team that was able to deal with that.

"I stood by him because he was the man who had won the World Cup. He had the experience and I was there to back him up as captain and get across what he wanted to do."