O’Driscoll won’t let critics get him down

BRIAN O’DRISCOLL has vowed that Ireland won’t be dragged down by their critics and denied there is any major frustration within the squad after three mixed performances in the RBS 6 Nations championship to date.

“I really think that (outside negativity) has clouded over the scores we’ve created and the amount of tries that we have managed to score in the Six Nations. There hasn’t been much of a reference to that (tries); I’m the eternal optimist, I look at what positives we can take out of games rather than dwelling on negatives. If we can outscore teams three tries to zero then I think it’s a small fix in getting our discipline right.

“From punditry to those reading papers and then (to) the general public there is a percentage of people that have a very good understanding, then there’s a large portion of people that know what’s going on in the game but do rely on what is said to base their opinions on.