Opinion Rugby awaits ‘great’ goodbye

Rugby is fiercer than cricket, and its savage tackles infinitely more ferocious and frequent than cricket’s bouncers.

February 22, 2014 01:15 AM IST First published on: Feb 22, 2014 at 01:15 AM IST

Four months since cricket’s biggest retirement, rugby and its famous tricolour is bracing for a massive one of its own. Brian O’Driscoll first picks his 139th cap in Saturday’s Ireland-England Six Nations game, giving the great one the all-time Test appearance record alongside George Gregan as the most capped international of all time.

But the whole of Ireland is trudging, heavy-heartedly, towards a similarly emotional goodbye to a sporting talisman, who means as much to Ireland as Sachin Tendulkar did to the Indians. This mid-March, Brian O’Driscoll — BOD to all — bows out from the Six Nations, the same stage where he was thrice Player of the Tournament, after registering many firsts including first wins in many years against the Welsh and the French in Paris.

One of world rugby’s best centres, O’Driscoll’s Irish career spanned four WCs and his national duty could almost be said to have coincided with that for Leinster, but not unlike Tendulkar, he’ll be remembered for the great amalgam of grit and grace he brought to Irish sport in a career that lasted over 15 years.

Rugby is fiercer than cricket, and its savage tackles infinitely more ferocious and frequent than cricket’s bouncers. So even if it’s a decade less than the Indian, O’Driscoll’s nation was not found wanting in obsessive anxiety when his back snapped a few years back just as India agonised over one painful tennis elbow.

In the last few seasons, murmurs were getting louder — as the toes were a tad slow to twinkle — asking how long the BOD show would run. But just like in the Six Nations opener against Scotland, there was always that beauty of a lovely off-load after a side-step and committing three of his opponents, to remind everyone why there was more than brute-force to D’Driscoll’s sport. In fact, his sharp brain that could read the next three moves even when the limbs slowed down, was too quick for even flanker Chris Henry who botched that dreamy pass that night as the slow realisation of his career ending hit home.

A few have called it an indulgent swansong, worrying the nation would lose sight of Six Nations goal. But if there’s one man who’ll be rooted on both sides for a fairytale farewell, it would be Brian O’Driscoll at Twickenham.

Shivani is an assistant editor based in Mumbai