Drico ready for the big one
It is also a pretty accurate and succinct synopsis of just how far the two provinces have come since the Irish captain made his debut against Munster at the home of Cork Constitution 11 years ago, a 31-20 win for the hosts.
It was a game sprinkled lavishly with players who would kickstart Irish rugby’s professional emergence.
The hosts alone had men like Keith Wood, Peter Clohessy, Mick Galwey and O’Gara, to name but a few in their ranks. Leinster travelled with, amongst notable others, Girvan Dempsey, Denis Hickie, Reggie Corrigan, Victor Costello and an exciting young 20-year-old centre who caught the eye with fancy footwork and lightning hands.
What has changed, apart from most of the personnel, is the context and surroundings. Munster-Leinster is no longer a mere interpro reserved for historic but limited venues like Temple Hill, Dooradoyle or Donnybrook. Full house signs have already gone up in the old Lansdowne Road and Croke Park to accommodate this pair. Much the same is expected tonight when one of the world game’s pre-eminent derbies experiences its first taste of the €410m Aviva Stadium.
O’Driscoll is suitably enthused.
“I’m excited about it. I’ve been there a few times and done a few press things on the pitch but I have not gone on any tour so that I will have that excitement for the first time I play there and being able to take in the whole lot.
“I’m looking forward to that. The fact that it is Munster heightens it and makes it that bit more special. A full house will be fantastic, you want to play in big stadia before big crowds against the best teams.”
All in all, it is quite a leap from his debut at Temple Hill when a crowd of about 4,000 took in an age-old rivalry that had yet to emerge from the shadows of the AIL, let alone the country’s other main sporting codes.
From such humble surroundings has arisen a head-to-head with an appetite for breaking records and the 82,208 that took in their Heineken Cup semi-final two seasons ago should be joined tonight by the biggest crowd to watch a Magners League fixture. Dizzying stuff.
“That comes with the popularity of the game, from Munster being so successful in the Heineken Cup, then ourselves winning one and the semi-finals that we’ve had against them. There’s definitely more pages in the media and more talk at lunchtime in offices around the country (about these clashes).
“Things are heightened but amongst players, I’m sure they look at it the same way. We respect them (Munster) hugely because we know what they have done.
“They’ve done it year on year and it takes a monumental performance to beat them.”
Like any self-respecting rivalry, it has prospered thanks largely to the fact that neither has been able to maintain the higher ground for long. Leinster’s current run of four consecutive victories is very much the exception to that rule. At times, passions have overheated – as evidenced by John Hayes’s uncharacteristic stamp on Cian Healy last year and Jonathan Sexton’s goading of O’Gara after a try in Croke Park the season before – but O’Driscoll doesn’t believe that there is any more of an edge to the game now than before.
“I don’t necessarily think it’s got edgier. It’s always been there amongst the players. It might’ve got edgier amongst the fans but amongst the players, sure we love to win against one another and it is a big component to your season but there’s a big realisation that a lot of us are team-mates when we pull on an international jersey.
“There’s never any untoward negativity towards each other whether you win or lose.”
League points, local pride and individual brownie points in front of the watching Declan Kidney aren’t the only ingredients added in this evening. For Leinster the stakes are even higher given their lacklustre start to the campaign.
THE most damning criticism of all has been the suggestion that some players have looked disinterested during the first four games.
“I don’t know anything about people seeing us as being disinterested. They can sit on their armchairs and look at one game and judge people off that. If they come to training day in, day out and see the work that’s done in the gym, they’ll see there’s quite high interest levels there.
“We’re trying to put the wrongs right and make sure we put a stop to the few defeats we’ve had. Particularly we’ve gone in, in nearly all of our games, leading at half-time and not started well in the second half so maybe there’s a bit of onus on us to do that. But we don’t pay much heed when we’re being patted on the back, like we don’t pay a huge heed when people are getting on our backs.”
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