Patience pays off for O’Driscoll

MICK O’DRISCOLL has been a patient man when it came to clinching a starting place with Munster and Ireland.

The opposition for places in the second-row of both sides could hardly have been tougher. Initially, Mick Galwey and John Langford held sway with Munster, then it was Paul O’Connell and Donncha O’Callaghan who stood in his way. Eventually the frustration got to him and he opted for a foreign challenge playing a couple of seasons in France with Perpignan.

Happy he was a better player for the experience, he returned to home and now finds himself looking forward to his eighth Irish cap at the Stadio Flaminio on Saturday as replacement for the injured Paul O’Connell.

“I’d much prefer not to be coming into the side on the back of an injury to Paulie and he’s going to be a big loss to Ireland,” said the 28 year-old Cork man. But that’s the way it goes. You try to take your chance when it comes. It’s a case of filling in the best I can and for the team a case of imposing our game on them, not sitting back and letting them get their game up and running. We need to get into them from the start, especially up front, and it’s a big ask because they are arguably the toughest front five in the competition.”

There are diverse views on the 1.30pm kick-off in Rome with regards the championship race.

“All going well, we will win the game and that puts us in pole position for a couple of hours and that’s the priority,” O’Driscoll reasoned.

As for his role in the line-out, he is satisfied that: “Rory Best and I should work fine at the line-out, we’ve been in camp for seven weeks or so now and he’s thrown to me many times. He’s one of the best throwers in the game and I don’t see it as an issue.”

O’Driscoll is quite philosophical about warming the Munster and Ireland bench so often with O’Connell and O’Callaghan are ahead of him.

“Going to France was the right thing for me to do at the time to try and further my career. I came back a better player. I’m back into the Irish set-up and for me that’s what it’s all about.”

He knows his return to the green jersey coincides with a crucially important game and that it could be a whole lot tougher than would have been imagined possible a few months ago.

“People wouldn’t have foreseen what has happened and Italy going so well,” he accepted.

“As I’ve said, I see theirs as one of the toughest front fives in the competition so people have to be realistic. The lads were criticised after Scotland but they came out with a win and that’s all that matters. If we go to Italy and win, we’ve got to be happy, we’ve got to be realistic.”