Furious O’Driscoll dismisses Best ‘choker’ taunt
The Irish skipper dismissed claims yesterday by former England coach, Dick Best, that Ireland had choked at the hands of France last week.
Best described Ireland as “perpetual chokers” in yesterday’s Evening Standard and cast doubt about Ireland’s reputation as a top class team.
But O’Driscoll, holding back on commenting about England, who lost out on three successive Grand-Slam opportunities in four years before finally winning the World Cup, retorted: “I don’t think his observations are worthy of response. Dick is always likely to come out with George Hook type-comments, that’s where he’s at. He is entitled to his comments but I can assure everyone that we’re most certainly not chokers.”
O’Driscoll accepted, however, that the rampant Welsh provide formidable opposition in the Six Nations climax on Saturday.
“Wales have shown they are the team to beat and they have proved themselves in all the matches this season for different reasons. But we’re playing for a second Triple Crown and a possible championship. There is a lot there for us at the end of the day. It’s not us trying to deny them something, it’s a situation where we can win something for ourselves.”
The captain is part of an unchanged line-up for the Millennium Stadium clash, and recognises that the players are on a mission of atonement.
“You can imagine how we feel. The team has been going well over the last couple of seasons, particularly in the Six Nations so it’s a big disappointment to know that we could have been playing for the biggest prize this weekend.
“It was very deflating to have been beaten the way we were beaten just, when it seemed, we had got ourselves back into the contest. But there is nothing we can do about that result, it’s gone. It’s not the perfect situation to be in but it’s the next best. As we sit at the moment, the championship would take us to another level and it would bring us, as a team, to where we want to be at this stage.”
O’Driscoll reckons there has been an over-reaction to the French defeat. “We never set out to lose, but when two goods sides clash there is always something to give. It’s a bit unfair for people to suggest we’re now a bad team on the back of one defeat from seven games this season. I know the resolve of this team is such that will allow us to bounce back and prove the critics wrong this weekend.”
One of the dangers, he stressed, was the fact that Wales play off the cuff rugby and are capable of punishing any opponent for mistakes made.
“I think it’s important to cut down on mistakes. The more they go through the phases, the more unpredictable and more dangerous they become. There is an element of that about any of the good teams in world rugby and we can’t get too perplexed about what they’re going to throw at us. It’s important to make them worry about what we might throw at them.”
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