Brian O’Driscoll says he would pick an English skipper to balance the Irish-heavy Lions’ squad against Wallabies
Despite a strong Irish flavour expected in the Lions’ squad to take on the Wallabies, one of Ireland’s greatest has suggested an English captain may be the way to go.
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BRIAN O’DRISCOLL knows a lot about leadership and the British & Irish Lions. The great Irish centre not only went on four tours as a player – bookended by two trips to Australia in 2001 and 2013 – and captained the Lions in 2005, but last year he was also on the panel which chose Andy Farrell as head coach.
With Sir Ian McGeechan, the Lions’ king of coaching, chairman Ieuan Evans, chief executive Ben Calveley and the former Bath and England lock Nigel Redman, who heads up the RFU’s “Project Everest” coaching succession planning, O’Driscoll made the easy decision that Farrell, 49, was the man.
The trickier call, that O’Driscoll does not have to make, is one for Farrell in the next three weeks. Who is his captain? With a heavy Irish flavour expected in the squad, and three assistant coaches following Farrell from the Ireland set-up, O’Driscoll’s preference is that the captain is English. Maro Itoje, not Caelan Doris, is his choice.
“I thought Caelan would be, but there’s a good chance it could be Itoje now,” O’Driscoll, 46, says.
“It’s unlikely to be [the Wales flanker] Jac Morgan, as you can’t guarantee him a starting place because there are a lot of back-rowers. I think Jac Morgan will go, but Maro – I’ve been impressed with him. He’s quietly gone about his business. He’s got the presence and he’s going to start, which is important for your Test captain.
“Maybe it takes a bit of pressure off other selections for Faz. If he did lean towards the tried and tested with Ireland players, maybe it gives a different complexion with an English captain. I think Maro would be a great captain.
“I thought he’d go with someone he knew in Doris. He’s new to captaincy, and I know Maro is too, but he’s got experience and miles on the clock. It’s a close-run thing. It’ll certainly be between the two of them. Faz has spoken about five or six guys [on his captaincy shortlist] … no. It’ll be between two.”
In his experience, O’Driscoll believes that Farrell will rely heavily on his Irish crew when he picks his squad for the tour to Australia on May 8, and his team for the first Test in Brisbane on July 19. That’s what coaches do.
“I get the sense he’s not going to feel flustered,” O’Driscoll, a HSBC ambassador, says of Farrell, under whom he played when the Englishman was defence coach on the 2013 Lions tour.
“If he does go Irish-heavy, and he’s gone Irish-heavy on his coaching staff, it’s tried and tested. Coaches always go back to muscle memory. If you’ve been there and done it and they’ve delivered for you, you go back to that. That’s my experience over the years, that when there’s a 50-50 call coaches will always revert to what they know.”
That could be an issue for English, Scottish and particularly Welsh candidates trying to force their way past the Leinster-dominated Irish hordes.
If Itoje is to captain a very green-looking squad – in terms of nationality, not experience – O’Driscoll has advice for him. In 2005 in New Zealand, O’Driscoll led a bloated group picked by Sir Clive Woodward.
He found it a challenge to connect with everyone, and says that a Lions captain must approach the role differently to leading their country. O’Driscoll should know, having done both.
“We got lots of things wrong in 2005 – like rooming alone – and there were some [players] I never trained with, let alone played with, as we were two different touring parties,” O’Driscoll says. “One thing I did understand is that it’s very difficult to have influence over everyone in a short space of time.
“You’ve got to influence the influencers. You’ve got to have the ear of those in their respective teams. If you have their ear then they’ll share your message down to their players.
“You can’t go round and micromanage everyone. It’s too short a time and there’s too many people.”
O’Driscoll knows the players will love Australia. Whereas tours to New Zealand and South Africa are relentless, with the Lions’ every movement tracked in rugby-mad countries, a trip down under is much more relaxed.
“I love Aussie,” O’Driscoll says. “It’s not all-consuming, you can dip in and out. The other two are very full-on. Australia is a bit more, ‘Whaddya doin here mate?’ ‘Er, the Lions is on this weekend …’ when you’re in the cab or whatever.
“It reminds me when I was in a cab in London going to the World Cup final in 2015, and a driver asked me whether I was going to the Chelsea match. He was oblivious.
“There’s a bit of that, and that’s quite nice. But in New Zealand and South Africa it’s pretty intense.”
Australia is also home to some frighteningly good athletes, not least Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, the rugby league convert who burst into the Wallabies side last year.
He will be a formidable foe for the Lions’ backs, whether he plays at centre or in the back three, as he has for the Waratahs in Super Rugby Pacific.
“He’s very exciting. I was really impressed with his defence [in the November Tests]. The hardest part at 13 is learning that and getting a sense of it, particularly coming from rugby league,” O’Driscoll says.
“I know you have to read front-door, backdoor, but the great thing about being wildly athletic is sometimes you can stay a while longer on the close runner [before deciding whether to tackle him or shift to the next player], and wait for your ability to read that a bit better to come.
“If you’re new to it, you need to own the front door a little bit more. Then you need to have the capacity to bounce out – which helps when you’re very athletic, which he is. We saw amazing aerial skills against England, but his defensive side of things was very impressive against Ireland.”
Back in 2004, O’Driscoll was asked if he wanted to cross codes to Warrington Wolves in Super League. He was flattered, as he wanted to play with Australian legend Andrew “Joey” Johns.
“He was wildly smart, like a snooker player who could see three shots in advance, and project what was coming” – but the lure of international and Lions rugby union was enough to keep him a one-club Leinsterman.
“Without disrespecting the Super League, to go across from playing in it compared to playing in front of 80,000 at Twickenham, 75,000 in Cardiff, and 50,000 in the Aviva or Lansdowne, it just didn’t add up at the time,” O’Driscoll says.
“The Lions is a big part of my rugby life, so I’m a huge fan and advocate for it. It’s a really special time to be a rugby player and make it on the Lions tour.”
This article first appeared in the Times and has been republished with permission.
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