No pain, no gain for Bod

IRELAND skipper Brian O’Driscoll has lifted the lid on some of the painful and bizarre work that Declan Kidney’s squad are undertaking ahead of the Rugby World Cup.

O’Driscoll yesterday tweeted a picture of one of his routines and then explained the background: “Traction for my neck! I could taste my fillings doing it. Not beautiful.”

IRFU spokesman Karl Richardson said that such scenes are commonplace in top level rugby. He said: “If you walk into any physiotherapy room there are all sorts of apparatus which are used for various stretching routines. This is one of them in action.”