Captain’s Blog: Management Olympics And More

Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll has been keeping us up-to-date, throughout the RBS 6 Nations Championship, with a regular diary which features on Irish Rugby Mobile on O2 and also online at www.bethedifference.ie.

This week, in the build-up to final game of the tournament against Wales, the squad have stuck to the plan that has brought them this far and tried to mix their intense preparations with a little bit of the lighter side of life.

Tuesday may have been St. Patrick’s Day for many but for the players, it was another training day. There was, however, the little task of the Ireland Management Olympics to sort out first.

Taking up the story, O’Driscoll wrote: “The highlight of this week was going to be the Ireland Management Olympics, a series of contests to which the players were really looking forward. Unfortunately it had to be distilled into a single event – a 100 metre sprint.

“The entire backroom team took part – from bus drivers, the operations manager, physios, video analyst to the various front-line coaches. The start was staggered on the basis of speed, sex and well basically, pedigree.

“Rala (team baggage master, Paddy O’Reilly) was given a 50-metre start on some participants but even that wasn’t enough.

“There were unconfirmed rumours that he didn’t even extinguish his cigarette at the start but after just 20 metres collapsed to the turf screaming that he had torn both his hamstrings.

“No one saw the sniper that brought him down but the theatricals were positively reminiscent of Ronaldo – not the Brazilian one!”

Commenting on preparations for Wales, O’Driscoll added: “As far as the game on Saturday is concerned, we are not going to approach it differently from the other matches in the sense that we will focus on preparation and performance rather than what can be achieved by winning.

“The one thing that we can take care of first hand is the performance and if we do that then the result will follow.”

“It goes without saying that the game against Wales is a massive opportunity for us to deliver on the hard work we have done both on and off the pitch this season. It is also the chance to give back to the fans that have pledged their support through the ‘Be the Difference’ campaign and travelled to games to support the team. It will be an unbelievable motivation to know we have the support of the whole country behind us when we face Wales this Saturday.”  

Send your support to the Ireland squad: Free-text IRELAND and your name to 50308 or online at  www.bethedifference.ie

Read the Captain’s Blog on IrishRugby.ie