Brian O'Driscoll: Ireland can cope with Garry Ringrose loss for French test
Garry Ringrose is set to miss Ireland's Six Nations game against France after being shown a 20-inute red card against Wales. Pic: Ben McShane/Sportsfile
Brian O’Driscoll has every confidence in Ireland’s ability to absorb the loss of Garry Ringrose from their midfield when Simon Easterby’s side takes on France in what is all but a Six Nations title showdown in Dublin on Saturday week.
Ringrose was the recipient of a 20-minute red card against Wales last weekend, after a high tackle on Ben Thomas. He will learn his fate at a disciplinary session on Thursday morning but will certainly miss that French invasion as a result.
The Leinster centre has been a huge part of Ireland’s defensive systems for a number of years thanks to his ability to sprint out of the blocks and stop or divert opposition attacks with his speed of thought and foot.
Then again, Ireland have rotated their centres through the three rounds of the current Championship, so Bundee Aki and Robbie Henshaw will be primed to wear the 12 and 13 jerseys at the Aviva Stadium in early March.
“I’m a huge Garry Ringrose fan but it is such a luxury to have three quality centres of that level,” said O’Driscoll at the launch of a new accessibility technology launched by Guinness for the Six Nations.
“It is unusual for us to have all three of them fit. One of them is nearly always out. Bundee comes on and does brilliantly the last day [against Wales]. We said that about Garry against Scotland. One of our best attacking players.
“Robbie now is the common denominator all of a sudden and I thought he did really well. I can’t tell you how hard it would have been [against Wales when down to 14 men], particularly defending at the setpiece as the only centre.
“And his capacity to read short and out the back is as good as Garry’s. So we are in a very lucky position.
“Okay, we lose creativity with Garry and he had a great game against France two years ago when he scored the all-important try at the end. But we’ll survive and that is the strength of this team.
“It’s not overly-reliant on one player and that is the difference between now and Ireland teams of the past when you would lose one player and go, ‘oh no’. That’s not really the case with this current crop, maybe save for Andrew Porter.
“The emergence of Jack Boyle coming through is very timely with Cian Healy coming close to the exit door. That’s so important to have guys who can fit in seamlessly as cogs in the wheel and that makes great sides.”
Ringrose’s technique has been questioned in the past, not least when he suffered a concussion in Murrayfield in 2023 when attempting to tackle Blair Kinghorn, but O’Driscoll doesn’t believe that this will change his approach.
“What comes out the other side, does he pull it back a fraction? When you think about the big concussion he got in Scotland a few years ago, it was significant and concerning, but it hasn't short-changed him on getting after those hits. It's just his way.
"He has a great propensity to read plays, it's his first red card at 30 years of age. He got one wrong and in the modern age lots of players are going to get one wrong.
"Almost all players across the board are going to pick up a red card during their career, whereas in my career they were hard to come by. It's much easier to pick one up now.”
O’Driscoll wasn’t keen on the new 20-minute red card rule that allowed Ireland to replace Ringrose with Aki who proved to be such a transformative influence on the game at the Principality Stadium, but he is coming around to it.
Ringrose’s red, he said, was just about a sending-off offence as opposed to an “oh my god” red. Not the type of incident that should prompt a player to reinvent themselves on the back of it.
“Maybe he'll pull it back for a few games and build confidence, get the quality back in again and then go back to rebuilding that part of your game again.”
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