O’Driscoll knows he has few more yards to run along warpath
Jersey and black marker in hand, the man in question was poised to mumble his request when O’Driscoll, cans covering his ears and eyes screwed to the tarmac underneath his feet, made it clear that there would be no autograph. Not just then.
“On the warpath,” he said baldly. And on he strode.
So it was two days ago just before noon when O’Driscoll and the rest of the Ireland team departed their base at the Shelbourne Hotel and ‘13’ chose a granite face to complement his team threads as they broke daylight for the first time.
Women screamed, children shrieked and men yelled.
O’Driscoll? He was on the warpath.
It was thus, a few little smirks and a wink aside, for most of the afternoon. Until that moment come mid-afternoon when his number was held up 63 minutes into a contest against Italy which he had done more than most to transform into a parade.
His parade.
And then came that wry grin.
By the end, he couldn’t help himself. Twice the camera cut to him on the replacement’s bench and the second shot was rewarded with a thumbs-up and another wink. It all got a bit “embarrassing”, as he admitted afterwards, but he earned it.
Not just for the 140 caps or the multitude of memorable moments down the years but for the manner in which he had met the occasion with one of the finest performances of an Ireland career littered liberally with them.
“Yeah, it was nice to be able to have an involvement in important moments in the game,” he admitted. “I take as much satisfaction in setting up tries as scoring them. I have to because I don’t tend to get that many myself.”
It could have been very different.
Liam Brady had made a similar, but very different, walk 25 years earlier on that very same patch: hauled off by Jack Charlton half an hour into a friendly against West Germany in his last game for the Republic.
Saturday provided its own cautionary tale in the sight of the mighty Martin Castrogiovanni stepping off after seven minutes with a rib injury on the day that he was earning a record 105th Italian cap.
By then, O’Driscoll had already made his mark. An opening try created for Johnny Sexton and then another for Andrew Trimble on half-time with a shovel pass that for all the world looked like a punter chucking a pack of peanuts to his mate in a crowded bar.
Only he could throw a pass that ugly yet beautiful. And only he could throw another one on the hour with Sexton benefiting on that occasion from his ability to make time stand still amid the mayhem before finding the route required.
And then, within moments, he was gone. Applauded off the Lansdowne Road turf to the same standing ovation that had welcomed him on shortly before 2.30pm and it was only then that the emotions began to unfurl.
Yet those left behind still had work to do.
The one time all week O’Driscoll’s last Ireland game in Dublin, or his world record 140th cap, were mentioned was by Joe Schmidt in a team meeting shortly before they boarded the bus to take them from the Shelbourne to the Aviva.
It was only afterwards that the tributes flew.
“He has a massive heart,” said Fergus McFadden, who took his place on the pitch. “I’ve done some really tough training sessions and been in some tough games with him. There’s something else ahead of the flare and the flash that he does produce and people write about but he also has a massive heart and he never gives up. If you have that you can go a long way to being successful in this game.
“He created three tries and a couple of them were out of nothing. Hopefully he can bring that form with him into next week. That’s the big one for us next week, try and get a win in Paris. It’s not going to be easy.”
Not by a long shot.
Eoin Reddan echoed that thought. Victory in Paris would certainly be a fitting ending but it could only be one of many. The final farewell with Leinster is another two months distant come what may in Saint-Denis. Heineken and Pro12 baubles are still dangling from the tree of opportunity.
So, was Saturday’s love-in all a tad … premature then?
“In my experience, sometimes you can get a bit introverted about these things and get really focused on the detail for next week,” Reddan said, who is usually a good weather vane for these things, “but at the same time they are big occasions and you can’t let them pass by either because then they are missed opportunities.
“It’s a balance between giving the fans a chance to pay their respects and then us giving a chance next week to pay our respects. That will come in a totally different fashion. We won’t be standing back applauding people. Hopefully we will be delivering a role, going out against a very tough French team and getting across the line.”
The warpath awaits. Again.
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