Just three minutes after Laney’s penalty, Stringer whipped the ball away left to Humphreys who put Brian through a yawning gap as the Scottish defence was caught by the decoy run of Kevin Maggs. At last, Brian’s poor run of form seemed to be over, and this special try seemed to help him put the demons that had haunted him since the previous summer to bed.
Brian seemed psyched up and ready to take on the world, back to his most bold, confident and deadly, and just seven minutes later he was at the centre of the action once more. He started the move with a powerful kick upfield, and then helped finish things off when his long pass drifted wide to left-wing Shane Horgan, who ran in unaccompanied.
More was to follow before half-time when the Scotland midfield dropped the ball in the home 22. Up stepped Brian who moved in swiftly to scoop it up and sprint all the way in. Humphreys added the conversion. Suddenly, all Brian’s problems with confidence seemed like ancient history. This was more like the Drico who scored a hat-trick against France.
Laney reduced the Scots’ deficit with a penalty either side of half-time, before Humphreys relieved some of the pressure now being put on Ireland with two rifled penalties, passing Michael Kiernan’s record of 308 points for his country in the process.
With 15 minutes remaining, Ireland added another try when the Scottish midfield clumsily dropped the ball for the umpteenth time in the match, allowing Horgan to feed Humphreys who in turn switched direction for Simon Easterby to glide in.
Scotland scored a consolation try but it was Brian who was to have the final word on the game, when a quick ball from an Irish scrum allowed him to dart between Andrew Henderson and James McLaren, to score his second Six Nations hat-trick and seal Ireland’s only second victory over Scotland in 15 matches, by a comfortable 43–22 margin. Brian O’Driscoll was back in business.
As for the Ireland team itself, it soon became clear that this was still very much a side in transition. Frustration at the lack of consistency had seen Warren sacked as coach and he had been replaced by his assistant, Eddie O’Sullivan. Consistency was still very much a problem. On the one hand, they had beaten Wales and Scotland, yet on other days they had suffered humiliating defeats at the hands of England and France.
Longstanding Ireland captain Keith Wood announced his retirement after the autumn internationals of 2002. In Eddie’s mind, Brian was the natural and most obvious successor to Keith, and the announcement that Brian would be captaining Ireland in the 2003 Six Nations surprised few. It is true that, at just 24 years of age, he lacked the kind of experience most previous captains had seen, but there were clearly many good reasons why Brian was ready for the job.
Mainly, Eddie’s eye was very much on the future. Yes, there was no reason why Ireland shouldn’t be serious contenders for the upcoming Six Nations, but there were a crop of truly outstanding players on the horizon who would not reach their peak for another few years. Like his predecessor, Eddie believed in getting them used to playing together early on, so that, when they were all at the top of their games in a few years’ time, they would know one another’s games inside out.
Brian was still very much an improving player. Incredibly, he still had his critics. There were, for instance, still those who believed his kicking game was not up to scratch, yet this previous weakness had come on in leaps and bounds over the previous 12 months. In reality, Eddie knew that Brian had what it took to make an outstanding captain, despite his relatively young age. He had shown battling qualities in so many Ireland performances to date and, despite his reserved and humble personality, was proving to be a ruthless warrior on the pitch.
Every serious rugby fan in the world now acknowledged that he was one of the world’s greatest players, and was still getting better all the time. The Ireland fans had taken him to their hearts, so much so that T-shirts bearing the slogans ‘In B.OD We Trust’ were soon printed following his appointment as captain and have remained popular at Ireland matches ever since.
In his first Six Nations as captain, Brian led Ireland to four wins out of the first four matches, which included an impressive try of his own against Italy. The scene was set for a Grand Slam decider at Lansdowne Road against a powerful England side. On the day, Ireland struggled to get going and were simply outclassed by the more mature England side, and, despite Brian and Geordan Murphy testing the resolve of the England defence early on, the result never looked in any doubt and England secured a walloping 42–6 victory. After the game, Brian told the press that slowly, but surely, they were getting there and it was only going to be a matter of time before Ireland ranked among the world’s greatest sides. For him, it was disappointing to lose the game but he was still hugely optimistic for the future, as he knew the sheer quality of the young players coming through.
This defeat set alarm bells ringing in certain quarters and not everybody at the IRFU was willing to play the ‘long game’ that Eddie and Brian were committed to. Keith Wood, who had barely even featured for his club Harlequins during the season, was coaxed out of international retirement. It was decided that he, rather than Brian, should lead Ireland in the upcoming World Cup, which was to be his third as a player.
Brian could easily have felt cheated of the opportunity to captain his country in the World Cup, but instead he stuck his head down and quietly got on with the job, knowing that, once the tournament was over, Keith would be off the scene for good and the role of captain would be his once more. This decision was certainly a controversial one, as it went against the youth-based ethos that Eddie had subscribed to throughout his tenure so far. Yet it was the long, patient game that had cost Warren his job and the powers that be weren’t willing to wait much longer for Ireland to become serious contenders. This meant that it was Keith’s job to add some much-needed experience to this very young squad.
The first three matches of the tournament saw Ireland notch up convincing victories against Romania and Namibia in the Pool stages, before defeating a resilient Argentina by a single point thanks to a try from Alan Quinlan. Brian made his presence felt in Ireland’s final group game against Australia. In the second half, with his side 14–6 down, he scored one of the most memorable tries of his career to date. The video referee was brought in to judge whether the Irish ace had touched the ball down in the left corner before his feet went into touch, but the Irish faithful inside the stadium were never in any doubt.
Ronan added the conversion, to put Ireland within a point of the world champions. Elton Flatley kicked another penalty to make the gap four points, but a drop goal from Brian with 13 minutes to play kept Ireland in the hunt. Unfortunately, Australia were just that little bit too strong for them and the more experienced side managed to hang on for victory.
Despite the defeat, Ireland had done enough in their earlier matches and set up a mouth-watering quarter-final clash against France. Although Ireland were the underdogs, Brian had remembered how his side had beaten France 15–12 in a closely fought match in Dublin during the Six Nations and knew this game was very winnable.
However, come the day, the French stormed to a 27–0 lead at half-time and amassed four tries in the process. Even so, Brian was at the top of his game and things could have been so much worse for the Irish had he not been playing. Early on, he made a crucial last-gasp tackle on a flying Tony Marsh to deny him an almost certain try.
Crenca scored France’s fourth try inside the first 10 minutes of the second period, effectively ending the game as a contest, but Ireland soon got on the scoreboard with a try from Kevin Maggs. This was now an exercise in damage limitation, and Brian was clearly keen to give the thousands of Irish fans at least some momentum they could be proud of from this game.
Sure enough, Brian delivered Ireland’s second consolation try when he got a touch on Humphreys’s grubber kick, and on the final whistle he added a second to bring respectability to the scoreline, which read France 43 Ireland 21. Things would have been a lot worse without Brian.
Ireland’s World Cup had been typical of the sort of form they had been showing over the past year. On occasions, they looked like they could beat any team in the world yet they were a young squad and on the really big occasions their lack of experience and squad depth really did show, but at the