Inevitably, the English press spun his words into a severe dig at the current England squad. The reality was that the squad were rebuilding in between World Cups and few could seriously deny that this was an England team in transition, but these remarks were pinned very firmly on Brian and he had to live with the fall-out that followed.
He knew that this would wind up several members of the England squad and that the best way to cope with this would be to fight fire with fire. Ireland had been made pre-tournament favourites and Brian employed the mentality of the All Blacks, who are favourites before just about every match they play. They then embrace this thought and build it into their preparation.
Ireland were pre-tournament favourites and had an experienced, yet developing squad, and, as captain, Brian saw no reason why they couldn’t go on and take the Six Nations by storm.
The campaign was due to start with a trip to Italy. Brian decided to sit out Leinster’s game against Gwent the week before so as not to aggravate his shoulder. This meant he hadn’t had much match practice in the run-up to the Italy game, but he went for the lower-risk strategy of doing a full week’s training instead.
The away trip to Italy was never going to be a walkover. They had come on in leaps and bounds since John Kirwan took over as coach and their days of being the whipping boys of the Six Nations were well and truly over. Worryingly for Brian, they tended to put in their best performance of the Championship in their first match. Italy were fresh, had prepared well and, as it was the first game, were generally free from any significant injury worries within the camp.
This was always likely to be a baptism of fire for Brian. A week before the match, a journalist who had known Brian for many years put it to him that he had matured as a person and would now handle comfortably the sort of situations that would have fazed the Brian O’Driscoll of five years previously. It was more a statement than a question. Brian had been captain for two years by now, but never before had he captained a team as well prepared and well balanced as this. It was up to him to lead by example. The time had come to deliver.
As expected, Italy didn’t roll over easily on home soil. They took an early lead through a Luciano Orquera penalty after seven minutes. Italy had the better of the first quarter before a Ronan O’Gara penalty drew the scores level. With Ireland struggling to maintain possession, it looked like being a long, hard slog to get anything out of the game. Cue Brian O’Driscoll.
Just before the half-hour mark, he ran a dummy scissors and made a breathtaking outside break before passing to Geordan Murphy who scored in the corner. However, an Italian penalty followed, leaving Ireland trailing 9–8 at half-time.
In the second half, Brian really turned up the heat and led by example, and it was his break that set up Peter Stringer’s try. For most of the second half, though, it looked as though Italy could quite easily have snatched the game as they tested the Irish defence time and time again. A Denis Hickie try made sure Ireland didn’t lose the game, but it could hardly be described as a convincing victory. It was a sluggish performance by Ireland and the 28–17 scoreline was flattering to say the least.
Brian’s predecessor as Ireland captain, Keith Wood, was working as a pundit for the BBC and said that if Brian hadn’t been playing it could easily have been a different result. Worryingly, Brian picked up a hamstring injury in the last minute. There was no way Ireland could have lost the match that late on, but Brian took his dedication a tad too far by getting involved scrambling around with the pack in the final seconds. Judging by his team’s performance on the day, he should have thought of the greater good and not taken any unnecessary risks.
Yet this was typical of Brian’s character. He only knows how to play rugby one way, to get stuck in and stay involved for the whole 80 minutes. That night, and during the following morning, he nursed his injury with ice back at the hotel. All he could do was be as still as possible and get bored out of his mind sipping tea.
The flight home was delayed so Brian was left sitting around for even longer than he would have liked. Clive Woodward put in a call asking how bad the injury was. By now it seemed Brian would be laid off for weeks rather than months, and fingers crossed he would be ready to captain the Lions. But for now, there was no hiding the disappointment that he was unlikely to feature much more in Ireland’s Six Nations campaign.
With the rest of the Ireland squad preparing for the next game against Scotland, Brian would spend the week working around the clock with the medics on his hamstring. It soon became clear to all in the Ireland camp that neither Brian nor Gordon D’Arcy was going to feature in the Scotland game, but this was to remain a closely guarded secret all week. After all, why put the Scotland squad at ease by giving them this crucial information sooner than they had to? It seemed far better to let them sweat a little. It was only when the Ireland squad left for Edinburgh on the Thursday that their secret was out.
Instead, Brian and Gordon were off on a little trip of their own, to somewhere very different. On the Sunday, they were to fly out to the Cryotherapy Chambers in Spala, Poland, for five days’ intensive treatment to try to get them fit for the England game.
During Warren Gatland’s reign as Ireland coach, the whole squad had been to the complex for intensive training sessions. It is a gruelling, unforgiving place but the facilities there are state-of-the-art and leave nothing to chance.
It has a well-equipped fitness centre with some added bonuses, such as the ice chambers for cryotherapy, where they can set the temperature to minus 120 degrees, enabling you to triple your workload on any given day. The theory is that the extreme cold boosts your circulation and thereby flushes out the toxins that release chemicals into the system, such as lactic acid. Brian and Gordon hoped the experience would speed up their recovery by up to two weeks, allowing them both to take to the field against England.
Brian checked out of the City West hotel just as the rest of the of the squad headed for Edinburgh, and decided to spend a few days at home before flying off to Poland. He watched the Scotland game there with his sister Jules. Brian has never enjoyed watching matches he should be involved in and this was no exception.
As had been the case all too often in the recent past, Ireland got off to a sloppy start and Scotland took the lead through a Hugo Southwell try. However, the Ireland team recovered as the boys led by stand-in captain Paul O’Connell turned on the style. Ronan O’Gara was back on superb kicking form, and five superb tries saw Ireland come out 40–13 winners. In truth, the scoreline flattered the Scotland performance as Shane Horgan spilled the ball over the line in what was otherwise a great effort by him, and the Irish defence were superb throughout.
Brian flew out to Warsaw early on the Sunday morning, but getting there proved to be an adventure in itself. The IRFU had booked Brian and Gordon under different names to avoid drawing unwanted attention to their trip. Brian became Brendan O’Donovan and Gordon was Graham Delaney.
When Brian went to check in, he didn’t know whether he should keep up the pretence or whether the ground crew were in on the scheme. When asked his name, Brian froze, as though it was a tricky question or he had something dodgy to hide, so he just gave a daft grin.
It didn’t get any easier in the departure lounge. A middle-aged lady came up to him and asked him if he was the young actor in the O2 advert on television. Brian couldn’t wait to get on board, put his earphones in and get back to sleep.
Upon landing in Warsaw, Brian and Gordon faced a two-hour drive to the complex. The journey wasn’t particularly welcoming. The temperature was well below freezing and dirty snow was piled high on the sides of the road amid grim, barren scenery.
For the next four days, the two would undertake a punishing daily routine that usually included no fewer than three cryotherapy sessions per day, combined with fitness work and sessions in the pool, complete with bungee straps