O’Driscoll the best centre in history, says Tuilagi

Manu Tuilagi believes Brian O’Driscoll is the best centre in the history of rugby and the two of them can form a superb centre partnership for the Lions this summer.

O’Driscoll knows the tour to Australia is his last chance to be part of a victorious Lions side after three agonising defeats. And Tuilagi, who is 12 years O’Driscoll’s junior, believes the Irishman has no peers in world rugby.

But as the team prepare for Saturday’s opener against the Barbarians in Hong Kong, Tuilagi says he will do everything he can to learn from the legendary Leinster man.

“What a player he is,” said Tuilagi. “I have watched him from a young age. He has been the best 13 in the world, the best player in his position in rugby history.

“I have played against him for Leicester in the Heineken Cup. I went up to him after and shook his hand, and he said ‘well played’. That is a moment you remember.

“He was one of my heroes. He is one of those players you love watching. You just know that something is going to happen whenever he has the ball.

“It would be amazing to play alongside him. Can we form a good partnership? Yes.”

And it is instructive that when O’Driscoll was forming a devastating centre partnership with Jamie Roberts in South Africa four years ago, Tuilagi was still playing for his local rugby club.

The then 18-year-old had come through the ranks at Hinckley, just outside Leicester, and was already tipped for the top — but he didn’t think it would come quite so quickly. But now it has he is convinced the Lions can return victorious from Down Under.

“Four years ago I watched all the games in Hinckley Rugby Club,” he added.

“I wouldn’t have believed anyone if they’d have said I would be going on the next tour. It’s amazing how many people believed in me.

“It’s been so quick — from the Academy to Leicester’s first team, then England Saxons, the full England side and now the Lions. I can’t believe it.

“When I was young my dad would always go on about the Lions, and for a while he has been asking when the squad would be announced. I had to go, ‘dad, that’s next year’.

“But it’s the tour you really want to go on. It’s the one that you will remember forever.

“And we can definitely beat Australia. With the talent we have we can certainly win. It’s a long time since 1997 and the last time we won a series.

“But the Six Nations is such a tough competition and that tells you the talent we have when the four countries come together. I think we will do the job.”