O’Driscoll says win answers a lot of questions

EVEN for a player so experienced on the game’s biggest stages, Brian O’Driscoll had never played in a match quite like Saturday’s Heineken Cup final.

The turning around of a 22-6 half-time deficit to Northampton Saints for Leinster’s 33-22 victory would take some beating at any stage in any competition but in the showpiece event of the most prestigious club tournament in the northern hemisphere, there were no comparisons for the Ireland captain to make from his long career.

O’Driscoll admitted: “I think it makes the magnitude all the bigger because it was a Heineken Cup final.

“That’s what makes it so much sweeter. The second title is apparently meant to be the one that’s harder to win and it’s been a hard road. Being (16) points down in the dressing room and being able to come back from that answers a lot of questions about the character and the ability of a team.”

The hard road O’Driscoll alluded to involved overcoming obstacles such as French champions ASM Clermont Auvergne, fellow Top 14 contenders Racing Metro and English title challengers Saracens in the pool stages while European powerhouses Leicester and Toulouse, the 2010 Heineken Cup champions, were accounted for in the knockout stages.

“The difficulty of the opposition that we had to get by to get to the final first and foremost was tough. I was looking back, we were playing two Aviva Premiership finalists and three semi-finalists from the French league. I think the calibre of opposition we played against probably stood to us when we knew we needed to raise our game.”

He admitted this title will have a special place in the O’Driscoll memory vault.

“It’s definitely one you’ll look back on in 15 years’ time, far more than the first one, and go ‘that was a good day’.”

Well, a good half day in terms of the match as O’Driscoll described an opening period where Leinster were “seriously lacking” in width and composure to leave themselves with that mountain to climb.

“Were we as composed as now? Probably not, but we did feel in the first half that if we were able to string a few phases together we would have them in a bit of trouble but we didn’t do that because we turned over the ball too easily. We didn’t get beyond third or fourth phase and we were just hurting ourselves. Any time they were on the attack they seemed to score. We knew that there were scores in us. Whether there was 27 unanswered points, well the second half proved that but I don’t think anyone was thinking that far ahead.”

O’Driscoll had been touch and go to even start the final having had a late fitness test on the knee he had injured the previous week against Ulster.

“Ah, it was okay. I wouldn’t say it was 100%. Adrenaline is a great thing. I probably didn’t have my finest performance but that’s neither here nor there when you have a medal hanging around your neck.”