Brian O Driscoll - Best of All time

Naysayers, I beseech you to watch this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JLASzADsaI .

Almost mustered a tear . The man is the personification of a lion, and the most complete player to ever play the game. No player in history has played at such a high level for 130 caps. No other player has had an unrelenting mastery of attack, defence, poaching, offloading, and try scoring. To describe him merely as the top try scoring centre of all time doesn't even scratch the surface. He has to make the lions, and should be captain in my opinion. He would die for his teammates. He embodies the spirit of the team, and the spirit of the game in general.

If this is to be his last tournament, may his last game be epic.

Cheers BOD, you have given everything to the sport, and you don't owe us fans anything.

Totally agree. It is upsetting to know that one day he will no longer be playing rugby. Although it is plausible that guys Carter and McCaw (the greatest to grace the game) can make it to 130 caps.

Not going to get involved in the arguments for or against...as there'll undoubtedly be those who have things to say against him.

He's much too special to me to get involved in an argument. People will always have their own legitimate views on him and any other player who is lucky enough to get called 'great'.

All I'll say is that was quite emotional for me - and I didn't expect it to be. For me, the greatest warrior Ireland had ever produced in sport - not in size, not in titles won or medals recieved... but in being the one man I'd follow into battle.

So disarmingly unrugbylike off the field both in personality and appearance, an absolute giant on it.

I wish he was Welsh.

He is an awesome force on the rugby field.

Best player I ever saw.

I first heard his name in a frantic drive to Dublin from Mayo for a wedding, listened to the first half of the france hatrick match with my da and brother on the car radio and got part of the second half in the hotel lobby. It was probably the day I decided to move off GAA and give rugby a lash. In the words of Paul O'Connell after the grand slam, Balls, what Balls he has.

Oh goodness I always forget how great he is until I'm watching him play. Such a phenomenally brilliant man.

On the field a joy to watch, off of it he gave Austin Healy a beating, so what a champion.

Class player !

Great pundit too!!

One of the best

Amazing player, like having an extra flanker & flyhalf on the field.

Unlike Ashton where its like having a cross between a winger and a flanker

I lost interest in rugby for a couple of years and then one day I was sitting in a pub and I looked at the tv and saw this magician on the screen.It was '99 in Paris and I fell back in love with this great game.
Thank you Brian

Difficult to judge players in different eras. Post professionalism O'Driscoll, Pelous, and Johnson have been great players that have driven their club and country to success. In the NH.

In my lifetime, Gareth Edwards is still king 'up north'.

But over the many years I've watched the game, RitchieMcCaw has been the most complete player I've ever seen.

Just my opinion.

Hound_of_Harrow wrote:Difficult to judge players in different eras.

I'm with Hound on this, but take it further and say it is an impossible task.

Best ever accolade can never, ever be given.

But BOD would be in with a very decent shout where the very finest of lines separate true legends of the game.

BOD :dothmyhatsmiley:

RDSguru wrote:

Hound_of_Harrow wrote:Difficult to judge players in different eras.

I'm with Hound on this, but take it further and say it is an impossible task.

Best ever accolade can never, ever be given.

But BOD would be in with a very decent shout where the very finest of lines separate true legends of the game.

BOD :dothmyhatsmiley:

If you were to pick teams in each decade, BOD would be a shoo in for the Noughties. He has been the best back without a doubt. The last decade where attacking teams could usually find a way or two round the obliterating defensive strategies we are now seeing.

There are unlikely to be any 'greats' over the next few years in the NH imo. Too much attritional rugby, and a 'gym mentality', plus a lack of core skills because of the first two points.

Different debate that one.

BOD

And thanks.

Yeah best player ever.

Ridiculous skillset

This man sums up everything I love about this sport, the bravery, the commitment, the strength both mental and physical and his sheer will to win.

Ive grown up watching him represent Ireland, I've never known an Ireland team without him and will be an odd feeling watching them play when he's not on the scene.

Not the best of all time (best is arguably Gareth Edwards) but he's in the rugby elite. Probably the finest #13 the game has seen. Has/had all the attributes and a fine ambassador for Ireland and Rugby

You know how great he was when New Zealand had to take him out they way they did in 2005. Genius on the field, unassuming gentleman off it.

Best centre I've seen in my 70'years

It was unfortunate for Brian O'Driscoll that he didnt collect the IRBs International player of the year in 2009, however the highly esteemed and respected rugby panel comprising John Eales,Will Greenwood,Gavin Hastings, Raphael Ibonez, Francois Pienaar, Augustin Pichot, Scott Quinell, Paul Wallace and Tana Umaga gave the award to Richie McCaw.

No couldn't say best ever. Very hard to compare positions and different eras.

For me, subjectively speaking he's in the top 3 players of the pro era with McCaw and Carter and is probably the greatest Irish sportsman of all time.

Ireland have been lucky over the past 12 seasons to have players like O'Connell, Wallace, ROG, Wood etc. but BOD stands head and shoulders above them all.

An absolute one off and I don't believe I'll see the likes of him again in a green jersey in my life time. He's transcended the sport and like Roy Keane, George Best etc. before him, and Rory McIlroy will continue to do, has challenged and raised the expectations of what Irish sportsmen, and Irish people generally, should aspire to.

Thanks for the memories Brian .

I don't like "best ever" type discussions (mainly because I'm not ready to accept that a certain G. Edwards might not have been ). BOD is certainly once of the best to have played the game and the complete centre. He makes the 'gym monkey' one dimensional centres preferred in many sides look like donkeys.

Yeah its a difficult claim to make on one "best ever" player. Theres been so many quality players...but only a few standard barers above them...BOD is one of those.

People rate McCaw as that player...yet (purely personal choice) i think Michael Jones was better. It has much to do with personal choice aswell.

Bod is class personified....

The sooner BOD is retired permanently against England or any English Club side the better.

So I can't praise him better than that.

I don’t know about the best ever, I haven’t seen every rugby player play!

But it’s irrelevant. To me, he’s the greatest sportsman Ireland have ever produced, a joy to watch, an honour to have been able to watch in the flesh. When my nieces and nephews are grown up I’ll be telling them that the player du jour could never touch him.

Genuinely would love to see a statue of him put up in Dublin, with the inscription -

And on the sixth day, BOD created space…

I have only seen 1 other centre to match him with respect to his all round game and skillset (I go back to the early 1960's)

That player was also Irish - Mike Gibson.

As others have said, there's no way we can ever decide on one player being the greatest ever; but O'Driscoll was magic. Never mind his longevity and the number of tries he's scored (and set up, for that matter), he's been one of those players who gets bums on seats, and then gets people rising out of their seats. Every other rugby-playing nation would have killed for an O'Driscoll.

The professional era has required players to increase their skillset tenfold. Maybe Mike Gibson had the ability to reach the heights of O Driscoll's skill, but due to the nature of the game he was playing at the time, he never needed to. O Driscoll runs harder, and tackles harder than Gibson ever did, professionalism has forced him to. Therefore he has absolutely reached a higher echelon of skill only shared with Richie McCaw.

BUT, show me McCaw setting try scoring records and scoring drop goals. Bod can pass, kick, score, poach, tackle. McCaw can tackle, poach, (albeit at a ridiculous standard) and pass pretty well too. However, if you are looking for the player who has mastered rugby as a whole, it has to be BOD.

Since this thread is pretty much just made for fawing over him, we should put together a list of his achievements. I'll start, but miss several I'm sure

2 Celtic Leagues
3 Heineken cups
1 6 nations title (as captain)
3 triple crowns (all as captain)
Top try scoring center in test rugby history
Top try scorer in 6 nations history
2 time 6 nations player of the year
3 time world player of the year nominee

You forgot 2005, when he pulled Gavin Henson's hair.

Mickado wrote:Since this thread is pretty much just made for fawing over him, we should put together a list of his achievements. I'll start, but miss several I'm sure

2 Celtic Leagues
3 Heineken cups
1 6 nations title (as captain)
3 triple crowns (all as captain)
Top try scoring center in test rugby history
Top try scorer in 6 nations history
2 time 6 nations player of the year
3 time world player of the year nominee

1 smug fizzog

To be fair Hugo, McCaw is a forward and BOD is a back. Try scoring is part of the back's raison d'être but that is not the case of the forward. The scrum is part of rugby but BOD has never mastered that.

Best player is nonsensical for anyone in what is a team game. The players around you help create the player you are.

Having said that, BOD was not much of a team player. He took games by the scruff of its neck and worked his individual magic to turn the game in his team's favour. Jonah Lomu and Shane Williams are examples of those kinds of players but they had a lot of weaknesses to parts of their game whereas BOD did not.

Best of all time, no chance. Nobody is above the game or indeed the team. Someone Ireland would never give up or trade as a player and a legend of the game: absolutely.

Hugo you do know Gibson played on with a broke leg once

He may not look it but he was as hard as nails

Also players in the 60's and 70's may not have been as fit but they were certaintly not soft.
I would have loved someone to suggest to the Pontypool front row they were soft

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:To be fair Hugo, McCaw is a forward and BOD is a back. Try scoring is part of the back's raison d'être but that is not the case of the forward. The scrum is part of rugby but BOD has never mastered that.

Best player is nonsensical for anyone in what is a team game. The players around you help create the player you are.

Having said that, BOD was not much of a team player. He took games by the scruff of its neck and worked his individual magic to turn the game in his team's favour. Jonah Lomu and Shane Williams are examples of those kinds of players but they had a lot of weaknesses to parts of their game whereas BOD did not.

Best of all time, no chance. Nobody is above the game or indeed the team. Someone Ireland would never give up or trade as a player and a legend of the game: absolutely.

True, BOD didn't master the scrum, nor lineout, but he damn near mastered everything else. In my book, no one has ever mastered the game like him. He has gone far beyond his positional restrictions, making turnovers for fun and scoring drop goals. Hence "Best Ever" is apt I feel. But I accept that my opinion is largely polluted with childhood memories of Drico, looking up to him the way citizens of Gotham City idolize Batman.

Geoff i'm not suggesting Gibson is soft, not at all. But in his era the game was about 3/4 speed it is now, players need to be sharper nowdays, and more physically fit.

"Geoff i'm not suggesting Gibson is soft, not at all. But in his era the game was about 3/4 speed it is now, players need to be sharper nowdays, and more physically fit"

The game was not slower at all - most players are fitter now and bigger, but it's not true that the game was less physical.

For me, the outstanding northern hemisphere players of the pro era have been BOD and Richard Hill. There can't have been many rugby players with such prowess in so many facets of the game as BOD.

If players are now physically bigger, does that not translate into the game being more physical? I accept that the psychology behind the game remained as physical in the amateur era, but surely nowdays you need to run harder to break out of the grasp of the likes of Stephen Ferris? You have to train harder and hit harder to be ready for the likes of Cian Healy running at you, a 120kg man who can sprint fairly handy!

kunu wrote:If players are now physically bigger, does that not translate into the game being more physical? I accept that the psychology behind the game remained as physical in the amateur era, but surely nowdays you need to run harder to break out of the grasp of the likes of Stephen Ferris? You have to train harder and hit harder to be ready for the likes of Cian Healy running at you, a 120kg man who can sprint fairly handy!

The point I think is that if Gibson was around now he would have had the superior conditioning that comes with being a pro in the current era, likewise BOD if he'd have played in Gibsons, wouldn't.

Now Gibson alongside BOD would be something else -

RubyGuby wrote:Now Gibson alongside BOD would be something else -

As an England fan, I'm glad we never had to face that pairing...

Agree with those saying that 'Best Ever' is a very difficult concept in rugby because of the specialisation of positions. BOD though is a legend of the early professional era - started off as a great attacking centre with pace and elusiveness but not great defensive ability. Worked so hard on his weakness that he turned it into such an asset that as his pace has diminished it's his defensive work, and particularly how clever he is at the breakdown, that has kept him comfortably as one of the first players on the Ireland team sheet.

As was said of Shane Warne in his last Test in England 'We wish you were English'. Can't think of a higher complement from the opposing supporters.

RubyGuby wrote:Now Gibson alongside BOD would be something else -

That what I dream of - my wife thinks I'm weird

geoff998rugby wrote:

RubyGuby wrote:Now Gibson alongside BOD would be something else -

That what I dream of - my wife thinks I'm weird

Rather depends what they are doing in the dream...

aucklandlaurie wrote:
It was unfortunate for Brian O'Driscoll that he didnt collect the IRBs International player of the year in 2009, however the highly esteemed and respected rugby panel comprising John Eales,Will Greenwood,Gavin Hastings, Raphael Ibonez, Francois Pienaar, Augustin Pichot, Scott Quinell, Paul Wallace and Tana Umaga gave the award to Richie McCaw.

Think he could have got it in '03 too but Fabien Galthie scooped it. Lets face it some of the people that won world player of the year will never be the legend that BOD was:

Wood
Wilko
Galthie
Habana
Dusatoir
Burger
Williams

to name a few. So the fact that he hasnt won it doesnt mean an awful lot if you ask me.

I watched a you tube tribute clip of BOD that was the best one I have seen and if anyone is in any doubt how good he is it must be viewed. Probably the same one as the op but cant check as in work.

BOD is a one in a million years player. Not sure Ireland will ever see a player so good again. Remember being astounded when I was young that a player from such as small place as Ireland could break the mould and be so much better than his peers.

Now that is rare because most of us, myself included aspire to be as good as our role models and heros. We are a great country for thinking small. However, BOD set his own standards way above IMO anyone that came before and achieved his goals seemingly effortlessly and precociously.