O'Driscoll on his century
Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:53
Saturday's Six Nations match against Wales at Croke Park will see Ireland's captain Brian O'Driscoll become only the second player to make a century of Test appearances for Ireland.
O'Driscoll follows on from prop John Hayes who reached the milestone in Ireland's 20-16 Six Nations victory against England.
The match will also be the 31-year-old's 63rd as captain of Ireland.
"For the moment I'm just treating it as another week and enjoying it," O'Driscoll said..
"Sure it's nice getting a lot of text messages coming in from past players and coaches. It's lovely from that point of view," he added.
"But I don't see any reason to get caught up in the hype of it all.
"Someone said to me '101 Test matches is more impressive than a hundred'. So maybe John Hayes should be the one that's up here [talking to the media]."
O'Driscoll has repeatedly put his body on the line in Ireland's cause. Only a fortnight ago, against England, he appeared to be knocked out cold after his head accidentally hit the knee of Ireland team-mate Paul O'Connell.
"When you are a professional athlete, there's always the fear you could have an injury that puts an end to your career or you can't evolve with the game or other people come in who are better than you to replace you.
"I didn't set a target in 1999 that I wanted to achieve 100 Test matches.
"A few years ago I thought it would be really nice to make a hundred.
"But I haven't gone 'I want to achieve 120', I'm just going game by game and really enjoying it still."
Ireland coach Declan Kidney said it was difficult to assess O'Driscoll's contribution to Irish rugby.
"I'd probably do it a disservice," Kidney said. "He's imparted his own knowledge as he's getting older to some of the younger fellas and that's a generosity that isn't always seen on top of his performances."
AFP
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