Brian O’Driscoll: His Six Nations Records

As a fitting conclusion, Brian O’Driscoll was named RBS 6 Nations man-of-the-match for a fourth time in his career and extended the myriad of his RBS 6 Nations records in the process:

– He has played in the most RBS 6 Nations matches: 65, all starts. He has missed just ten possible matches in 15 campaigns: against Italy in 2001, France in 2004 and 2007, Scotland in 2005 and England in 2008 as well as the whole of the 2012 tournament

– The only other players to have worn the number 13 shirt for Ireland in an RBS 6 Nations match are Mike Mullins, Gordon D’Arcy (2), Andrew Trimble, Shane Horgan, Fergus McFadden and Keith Earls (4)

– O’Driscoll has scored a record 26 tries in the Championship, four clear of second-placed Shane Williams, and has directly assisted in creating 16 other tries

– He had played almost 1,000 more minutes in the Championship than second on the list, his former Ireland team-mate John Hayes

– The victory in Paris was the 45th occasion that he has been on the winning side: the most in the 131-year history of the Championship, surpassing Jason Leonard’s record of 44 between 1991 and 2004

– He has skippered Ireland in a record 41 games in the RBS 6 Nations, winning 31 of those matches with his 76% winning rate being the best of all Irish skippers. Interestingly, Ireland won only 58% of the matches in which he played but was not captain!

– O’Driscoll has carried the ball 498 times in RBS 6 Nations history and made a record 2,546 metres at an average gain of 5.11 metres per carry

– He has made more clean breaks (67), won more turnovers (53), and achieved the most offloads (82), as well as beating almost twice as many defenders as anyone else (163), whilst only former Wales flanker Martyn Williams has made more tackles

(Statistics courtesy of Stuart Farmer)

Related Links –

Brian O’Driscoll: His Record-Breaking Run

It’s Incredibly Special – O’Driscoll

Brian O’Driscoll: His Test Career In Pictures

Brian O’Driscoll: Down Through The Years