TV Moment 2: Another Irish rugby player
Brian O'Driscoll will shortly be the most capped rugby player of all time, and he's possibly the best player of the last 30 years, which realistically means he may well be the best rugby player of all time. Certainly of the Northern Hemisphere.
As detailed in my previous blog, Irish rugby was pretty crappy for a pretty long time in the 80s and 90s, perennial underdogs with just the occasional stand-out moment. Since 1999 it's been a bit different though. They haven't become world beaters, but they've become a force, a unit, both internationally and domestically through Munster and Leinster, no longer subservient to the neighbours across the sea. They don't win every match, but they've always got a very realistic chance.
The O'Driscoll era is almost over, but I still remember the day it began in earnest, Sunday March 19th 2000. He'd already impressed me a bit in the that year's Six Nations, and was clearly the future star of Irish rugby. But it was the hat-trick he scored in a 27-25 win against France, Ireland's first win in Paris for almost 30 years, that catapulted him to instant hero status.
I remember it because it was the end of term in St Andrews. I'd have booked a train down from Edinburgh for the Monday so was staying at my aunt's on the Sunday night.
I got a lift down from St Andrews to Edinburgh from my friend Danny, who was heading on south, so dropped me by a bus stop just on the edge of town. I remember hoping I'd get to my aunt's in time for the game and, indeed, I'm pretty certain I missed the first ten minutes or so. Strangely, the mental association of O'Driscoll's brilliance for me is with that bus stop on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
What O'Driscoll did that day changed Irish rugby for good, gave it standing and pride. The fact that Ireland had someone now who was better than everyone else the opposition had inspired those around him to the same level. The litany of top class Irish players since then bears that out.
His searing brilliance continued, through the 2001 Lions Tour up to 2005 when New Zealand took him out, as captain, in the first few minutes of the test series.
Maybe he was never quite the same again. He was so scintillatingly quick early in his career, while later he bulked up and slowed down. He's still such a skilled rugby player though.
I'm trying to pinpoint what O'Driscoll represented then. Maybe it was the Celtic Tiger, the new confident Ireland, maybe it was the coming of age of professional rugby, the passing of the decade of dominance for England and France in the Six Nations (2003 says that's hardly the case!). For me, I remember just feeling lucky to have caught, in transit as I was, a little bit English, a little bit Irish, a little bit Scottish, a guy my age who was better than anything I'd ever seen before.
As detailed in my previous blog, Irish rugby was pretty crappy for a pretty long time in the 80s and 90s, perennial underdogs with just the occasional stand-out moment. Since 1999 it's been a bit different though. They haven't become world beaters, but they've become a force, a unit, both internationally and domestically through Munster and Leinster, no longer subservient to the neighbours across the sea. They don't win every match, but they've always got a very realistic chance.
The O'Driscoll era is almost over, but I still remember the day it began in earnest, Sunday March 19th 2000. He'd already impressed me a bit in the that year's Six Nations, and was clearly the future star of Irish rugby. But it was the hat-trick he scored in a 27-25 win against France, Ireland's first win in Paris for almost 30 years, that catapulted him to instant hero status.
I remember it because it was the end of term in St Andrews. I'd have booked a train down from Edinburgh for the Monday so was staying at my aunt's on the Sunday night.
I got a lift down from St Andrews to Edinburgh from my friend Danny, who was heading on south, so dropped me by a bus stop just on the edge of town. I remember hoping I'd get to my aunt's in time for the game and, indeed, I'm pretty certain I missed the first ten minutes or so. Strangely, the mental association of O'Driscoll's brilliance for me is with that bus stop on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
What O'Driscoll did that day changed Irish rugby for good, gave it standing and pride. The fact that Ireland had someone now who was better than everyone else the opposition had inspired those around him to the same level. The litany of top class Irish players since then bears that out.
His searing brilliance continued, through the 2001 Lions Tour up to 2005 when New Zealand took him out, as captain, in the first few minutes of the test series.
Maybe he was never quite the same again. He was so scintillatingly quick early in his career, while later he bulked up and slowed down. He's still such a skilled rugby player though.
I'm trying to pinpoint what O'Driscoll represented then. Maybe it was the Celtic Tiger, the new confident Ireland, maybe it was the coming of age of professional rugby, the passing of the decade of dominance for England and France in the Six Nations (2003 says that's hardly the case!). For me, I remember just feeling lucky to have caught, in transit as I was, a little bit English, a little bit Irish, a little bit Scottish, a guy my age who was better than anything I'd ever seen before.
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