BOD will take on backroom role with Leinster

Brian O’Driscoll is now unlikely to cut all ties with rugby once he hangs up his boots later this month with the veteran centre intimating he will look to stay involved with Leinster in an as yet unspecified capacity.

The Dubliner has spoken numerous times about his post-playing career and, until now, always suggested he is unlikely to dive back into the game after a summer off to recharge his batteries and take stock.

Coaching, he has said time and again, doesn’t seem a natural fit.

Discussions with Leinster have taken place and he was at pains to stress that nothing concrete has been agreed, batting away questions as to whether he would assume a mentoring role for young players or an ambassadorial role for the club at large.

“Listen, I don’t know. We haven’t gone into what that entails,” he said of the mentor idea. “That’s just something that has been floated and a passion and interest that I would like to show rather than anything coming necessarily from their end.

“To step away completely from it and be gone is hard. Shane [Horgan] was back at the weekend and had an involvement in the [club] awards ceremony and I think it’s important that ex-players stay involved because you want to have that connection, that ability to still be part of something that was special. It’s good for the club and it’s good for the individual.”

That’s that, then. For now. Whatever about his role going forward, there is no denying the hole his departure will leave with club and country and Leo Cullen, another Leinster stalwart on his last lap right now, put that in perspective yesterday.

“Watching the reels of him playing for Leinster at the awards ball, some of the stuff he does he didn’t learn from any coach I ever came across,” said the man due to assume the role of the club’s forwards coach.

“Listen, there are so many young kids playing the game now. We are going to get more talent coming through so hopefully it won’t take quite as long as that Jackie Kyle to Brian O’Driscoll gap. We might only have to wait 10 years before the next one.”