O'Driscoll has always been grounded, regardless of fame

He’s shown huge perseverance and taken every setback in his stride, whether it was losing a game to win a Grand Slam or lasting only a couple of minutes as the 2005 Lions captain or not making the final Test team on his last Lions tour. But those who know him well underline that Brian O’Driscoll always maintained his poise and dignity.

You could call him rugby’s Pop Herring. Except Alan McGinty can laugh about it.

There isn’t a high school basketball player in America or beyond probably these last 30 years who hasn’t heard that once upon a time, Michael Jordan didn’t make his varsity team. And it’s true: sort of. When he was a sophomore, his friend and classmate Leroy Smith made the senior team but the much smaller Jordan didn’t and instead was told by Clifton ‘Pop’ Herring he’d develop better by playing among his own age group that year. That call would actually aid Jordan’s development but Jordan such was a champion of using real or imagined slights to stoke his motivational fire that throughout his NBA career and well after it he would perpetuate the myth that he had been unfairly cut.