Ahead of Ireland’s Six Nations clash against France at the Aviva Stadium, Brian O’Driscoll has revealed his silent plan to win over the referee.
Brian O’Driscoll believes that the key to victory at the Aviva is to say as little as possible to English referee David Pearson.
He plans to play it cool and let the Irish team’s rugby do the talking.
“Most referees deal best with people that are quiet. Referees don’t like even captains in their ear the whole time telling them what to do. They want to be able to do their own job,” he says.
“Occasionally you might have a whisper, not make a big issue but tell them to look out for something. But the less said the better.
“They’ll understand how the game is going by the reactions of the crowd.
“If a team is trying to play rugby they are going to try and go with them. That’s the whole thing about getting on the right side of the referee, trying to be the team playing all the rugby and doing as little talking as possible.”
Ireland coach Declan Kidney, however, was keen to speak to the ref ahead of the game in the hope of avoiding a repeat of last week’s game against Italy, which saw Ireland heavily penalised, particularly relating to the scrum.
Despite having been out with injuries, Kidney expects both Tomás O’Leary and Jamie Heaslip to start.
“All the guys we named are still there. With Tomás, best practice is to just let him get ready and that’s what we’re letting him do,” Kidney says.
On Saturday, England thrashed Italy 59-13 at Twickenham with Chris Ashton becoming the first man to score four tries in a Six Nation game, and Wales beat Scotland at Murrayfield with a final score of Scotland 6-24 Wales.
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