O’Driscoll wants prideback in jersey

Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll has promised a more passionate and aggressive performance from his team this weekend.

Despite an enterprising opening 20 minutes in Auckland, Ireland were surprisingly sluggish thereafter with their defence and kick-chase game lacking real intensity. Save one big hit by Rory Best on Julian Savea, the Irish line speed was passive for the most part which allowed a stellar New Zealand back line to strut their stuff on the Eden Park turf.

There was little of the suffocating press defence that has characterised the Les Kiss era nor the infamous choke-tackle technique employed by the Irish pack to such devastating effect at last year’s World Cup.

This Irish side has been dismissed as cannon fodder over the next two weekends by the Kiwi media, a point not lost on their skipper.

“We’ve been written off over here already,” said O’Driscoll. “So we have to play with, not wild abandon, but controlled abandon as such.”

Ireland seemed shell-shocked at times in the first Test at the sheer pace Steve Hansen’s troops brought to the contest and O’Driscoll insisted his team must step up to stand any chance in Christchurch.

“When you turn over the ball you have got to ramp it up again,” said O’Driscoll. “You can’t pray that the referee is going to call a scrum. They [New Zealand] don’t want any scrums. They want to play.”

O’Driscoll found himself in the unfamiliar role of inside centre last time out to accommodate Keith Earls, with the partnership showing real promise at times against the world-class duo of Sonny Bill Williams and Conrad Smith.

In Earls’ injury-enforced absence, Gordon D’Arcy returns and O’Driscoll was enjoying being back in his favoured position.

“Yeah, you just know your surroundings and it is just human nature,” he said. “You spend 13 years of your life out there in one position and it just feels a little bit more familiar. So, yeah, I would say that in training today I felt pretty comfortable.

“Irrespective of who is around you in that position, you can understand and read things a little better there.”

Declan Kidney has selected 10 Leinster players in his starting team for the meeting at AMI Stadium including the Heineken Cup-winning back row and five of Joe Schmidt’s backs. There is hope these tried and trusted combinations may give Ireland an advantage on Saturday night.

“From a unit point of view, obviously the back row would have played together a fair bit this season,” O’Driscoll explained.

“I played with Gordon for a lot of years and we are very comfortable when it comes to knowing how each other tick so there is that comfort factor. I think Gordon has played really well. He probably would have been a bit disappointed with one or two games in the Six Nations, he got some stick that was a little bit on the harsh side of things but I think he has really upped his game massively since coming back from Ireland [into the Leinster camp].

“He has gone really well for Leinster and if you see him out at training, he is playing well and training confidently, so I am looking forward to partnering him again on Saturday.”

Unlike the rest of his comrades, O’Driscoll has played little rugby this year and gives off the impression of a man with plenty of unfinished business to resolve.

After their 42-10 humbling, the former Lions skipper wants his team to show some gusto and fire in Christchurch.

“I’d like to think that our standards are high,” he said. “We certainly slipped well below we’re we expected them to be last week so we’ve got put a little bit of pride back in the jersey and start Saturday.”