Brian’s Blog: IFTAs, ‘Intellectual Monday’ And A Blushing ‘Bull’
Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll brings us up to date with life in the Ireland camp. In his latest blog, he talks about his two awards show trips this week, and the players’ new favourite pastime of mortifying the ‘Bull’!
The thing that’s concerning me most in a non-sporting context at the moment is the fact that I seem to be pretty organised.
I am basing this evaluation on how few errands I have to run on my days off. The most taxing thing I have to do before returning to camp on Wednesday night is to help a friend fix and re-grout a tile in my hall.
Last Friday night I slipped along to the Irish Music Awards. Luke Fitzgerald, Cian Healy and Jamie Heaslip – I don’t know why it takes three of them to present a trophy, it’s not that heavy – presented the Best International Act award to Florence and the Machine. I enjoyed The Script’s performance too on what was a good night.
On Saturday I chaperoned my missus-to-be to the IFTAs and indulged in a little people watching. It was another excellent night.
Victoria Smurfit did a very good job as a presenter while I kept on eye on a few Hollywood A-listers: I prefer to observe rather than burn any ears.
Now in my defence I would just like to say that I spend a fair bit of time wearing tuxedos so I thought I’d try to be a little different and wear a cravat, to mixed reviews it must be said.
Some liked my sartorial style while others took the opportunity to rip me apart. I kept up to date with how Leinster were getting on through my father’s texts. He was at the match.
There was a fair bit of negativity in the wake of the French game, which has made us even more determined to right the wrongs of Paris.
We spoke about this and other things when we returned to camp on the Monday. There’s no better place than Twickenham to do that.
The players have christened Monday in national camp, Intellectual Monday, because various people come in give a chat to players about business opportunities.
A €;200 reward taken from the players’ (fines) kitty was going to be given to the player who asked the best question. It was a trap though as Donners (Donncha O’Callaghan) – he looks after the fines – was going to fine the winner €;250 on some pretext. No one asked a decent question so the opportunity was lost.
Finally, it would be wrong not to single out John Hayes’ magnificent achievement in reaching 100 Ireland caps this weekend.
We decided to embarrass him at the team announcement in the team room. After Deccie (Declan Kidney) had thrown a few bouquets his way, his team-mates burst into a round of applause.
Just as it was about to die out, someone would start it going again by clapping loudly. This went on for about two minutes with the Bull getting more and more mortified.
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