While some may have expected Brian O’Driscoll to be considering retirement in the near future, the man himself said yesterday he has no plans to hang up his boots.
It’s been a tough recently for Irish rugby fans. In the space of a week Jerry Flannery, Bob Casey and Shane Horgan all retired, and it was understandable that supporters would start to look at other older servants and wonder; are they going zip up the tracksuit for good too?
Ronan O’Gara allayed any fears about him quitting in no uncertain terms last week and now Brian O’Driscoll, freshly recovered from a serious shoulder injury, has done the same.
Speaking yesterday in the build-up to the Heineken Cup quarter-final with Cardiff this weekend, BOD even hinted that the next World Cup, in 2015, was a possibility.
“I’m not in a place at the moment where I am going to worry about how long I play for,” O’Driscoll is quoted as saying in all today’s papers.
“Right now, I am enjoying my rugby. We are where we want to be. We are top of the league and in the knockout stages of Europe so I don’t see any need to be putting a timeline on when I am going to finish.
“I spoke to Ronan the other day and he mentioned 38 but he mentioned 38 so people would get off his back and stop asking him when he is going to retire. There is no need to be putting a time limit on anyone. If they are in good form, their body is feeling good and they are mentally in a good place then I think you play on as long as possible. Just ask Brad Thorn.”
Thorn is the latest recruit to the Leinster cause and at 37, he claimed a World Cup winners medal with New Zealand. O’Driscoll is 33, and will be 37 by the time the next World Cup rolls around. It sounds to us like Bod would like to have another crack at the big one.
O’Driscoll has suggested in the past that next year’s Lions Tour would be his swansong but as he says himself, if he is feeling good then he may as well keep playing. We hope to be watching him do his stuff at 13 for a long while yet.
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