O’Driscoll not thinking about Lions captaincy

Brian O’Driscoll has dismissed suggestions he is focusing on the race to captain the British & Lions in Australia this summer but made clear his intentions to earn selection for a fourth and final tour.

O’Driscoll, 34, has experienced three successive series defeats with the Lions in 2001, 2005, when he was captain, and last time around in 2009.

The three-Test series in Australia, which begins in Brisbane on June 22, therefore represents the 34-year-old’s last chance to savour Lions success and crown a glittering career that has already brought a Grand Slam, three Triple Crowns and three Heineken Cup title victories.

Despite losing the Ireland captaincy to Leinster team-mate Jamie Heaslip, O’Driscoll’s man of the match performance in the win over Wales in last weekend’s opening RBS 6 Nations match has stoked support for his appointment by head coach Warren Gatland to skipper the Lions.

Asked yesterday if he had spent much time considering the Lions captaincy, O’Driscoll replied: “Absolutely not,” but when the subject of the Lions returned in a separate media briefing, in relation to this Sunday’s Aviva Stadium clash with England, the Ireland centre said: “I said I didn’t think about the captaincy, I didn’t say I didn’t think about Lions. That’s different.

“It’s impossible with the amount of conversation, the amount that’s written, the amount that’s spoken about the Lions not to get caught up in it, but it is important not to let your mind wander here and there.

“But I understand too, that the Six Nations is a means to that end. If you can get this bit right then you give yourself more of a chance of beinginvolved in something in the summer. Look back on different tours, in 2005, when Wales won the Slam they got a lot of players on the tour. We did in 2009, so it’s in every team’s best interests rather than just the individual. If the collective can go well the individual is going to be rewarded as a result.

“It’s a huge honour to be a Lion, a great honour to be among the top 35 players in the home nations. So you do everything you can, it’s definitely an added incentive in the Six Nations in a Lions year, to get your performances to as high a level as you can.”

O’Driscoll admitted a Lions series victory was “a second unticked box” next to not winning a World Cup.

“Would I love to be involved in a winning Lions tour? Absolutely. Unfinished business? I’ve been very lucky with what I managed to achieve, more so in the latter parts of my career, with regards to silverware and trophies.

“Would I really love to be part of a winning Test series? Absolutely. Do I want to go on another tour and not win a series? Not really.”