O'Driscoll: Lack of emotion a source of strength for Ireland in French test

Brian O’Driscoll joined the chorus in waxing lyrical about this French squad but says Ireland don't do panic

Thu, 27 Feb, 2025 - 07:13

Brendan O'Brien

Brian O’Driscoll greets the interview opener with a knowing smile and an air of good-natured resignation. It’s 25 years – a full quarter of a century – since he scored THAT hat-trick. And, hey, all things French are especially topical right now.

He’ll always have to talk about Paris.

Fabien Galthié brings his side to Dublin on Saturday week for a Six Nations showdown with Ireland that can’t come quickly enough. It’s a game that will likely decide the destiny of this year’s title. A meeting of two behemoths of the modern age.

Things were different for O’Driscoll’s coming of age afternoon.

Ireland hadn’t won in the French capital for 28 years by the time he did his thing that day in Saint-Denis. His was the first Championship hat-trick against the French in 74 years. Only England’s Jonny May, against an appalling France side in 2019, has managed it since.

The legendary No.13 looks at the current Ireland team and sees one “unrecognisable in mindset” from the one he starred on at the turn of the century. One that won’t have been unsettled by the weekend just gone and the very different games in Cardiff and Rome.

Ireland stuttered to a close-run win over a previously hapless Welsh side on the Saturday. France, led by the other-worldly Antoine Dupont again, pounded 11 tries in against Italy the following day in a clear fit of pique after their careless Twickenham loss.

O’Driscoll joined the chorus in waxing lyrical about this French squad and the threat it brings, but that mental strength with which he is so taken was evident in how Ireland found a way to win in the Principality Stadium too.

“It looks like an unbelievably tough fixture but we are a great side too. Ireland won differently last weekend and found a way when it wasn’t perfect and that’s the sign of a good team that there is no panic, two scores behind.

“What would be different if we went two scores behind 25 years ago in France? Panic button hit. It’s so process-focused [now], whereas we were very emotional back then. That’s the big difference. Using that emotion to get us going. I think [this team is] the opposite to that.”

Garry Ringrose, due to hear the verdict of his disciplinary hearing on Thursday morning for the red card earned in Wales, will have to watch this Six Nations round four fixture from the stands but O’Driscoll feels his teammates can absorb that loss too.

Ireland are blessed with world-class individuals, in midfield and elsewhere, but the strength of the team in recent years has always been in a collective that works in harmony on the pitch and through the weeks leading up to kickoff.

That has carried through from the back end of the November internationals when Andy Farrell handed the keys over to Simon Easterby for this window and the summer tour, confident that the systems and structures and people were in place to cope and thrive.

O’Driscoll’s message is that the best teams are driven by the players in the dressing-room, that the motivations to make a squad great are all sourced in-house, and that this stretches from the most experienced veteran to the newest recruit.

Ireland’s freshest face right now is Sam Prendergast at out-half, a player who looks “pretty unflappable” even when individual actions haven’t produced the results desired. ‘Bod’ has been impressed most with the ability to blank mistakes and move on.

“We're lucky to have someone at the helm controlling things that sees things that way. Someone was saying to me, 'he seems very laid back'. Like, is that a bad thing? 'Excessively laid back'.

“Well, we're splitting hairs. I'm sure he's incredibly driven and will be frustrated at the errors but I think there's been so much good stuff reacting to the errors it gives you huge confidence.”

Strip all his words back and there is an unquestionable air of bullishness to O’Driscoll as he surveys the game to come. How to beat this French force? Win the ruck. Achieve a parity at the collision zone. And, by doing that, stop Dupont at source.

“I've got to back us at home. I do think it'll be a one-score game but if we play well at home, we win.

“There'll be a huge focus on them, but the really top teams in the world, what I've discovered is they focus on their performance and not overly obsess on what the opposition will throw at them. If they implement their game plan, they win.

“The All Blacks had it for years. Great teams look at it that way. It's taken us a while to get there, but we've now found ourselves there. I think we'll marginally win against France, but it'll be a titanic battle. It'll be great.”