O'Driscoll warns Irish could 'click'
Lions captain Brian O’Driscoll is hoping the star-studded Irish back line can set Twickenham alight and bring down the curtain in style on the 2006 RBS 6 Nations.
The brilliant centre is banking on a familiar-looking Ireland back division to get the better of a new-look England line-up and put the seal on a second Triple Crown triumph in three years.
“Their back division has been a little bit like ours, it hasn’t quite fired as people predicted,” said O’Driscoll.
“I don’t think they’re going to be a million miles away from clicking one of these days but I hope we’re the ones who click first.”
Ireland’s back division can boast a staggering total of 293 caps and that includes rookie winger Andrew Trimble, who will be making only his sixth appearance on Saturday alongside Lions representatives Geordan Murphy, Shane Horgan, Ronan O’Gara, Gordon D’Arcy and, of course, the skipper.
“I prefer to be in my back line than the English backline and that’s not stirring things up, it’s just how things are,” insisted O’Driscoll.
“I think we’ve got extremely talented players. I’m not saying the English don’t but I feel that we have a potentially world-class back line once we click.
“It’s going to happen one of these days and that will be at hopefully at the weekend but we’re trying not to push the issue.
“The more pressure we put on ourselves, the more likely mistakes are going to arise so we’re just relaxing.”
Ireland, who relied exclusively on the boot of O’Gara to gather the points in last week’s win over Scotland, managed to beat England in the corresponding fixture two years ago thanks to a solitary try from Girvan Dempsey.
And realistic coach Eddie O’Sullivan believes just one score will determine the outcome of Saturday’s crunch clash at Twickenham.
“We’ve had some very good performances against the top teams in the world but we’ve never won any of these big games by more than one score,” he admitted.
“They all went down to the wire. That’s a fact of life for us.
“If we are going to win at Twickenham on Saturday, it will take a hell of a performance and it will probably be a one-score game.”
A third successive win over England – a feat Ireland last achieved in the mid-1970s – would wrap up the Triple Crown but O’Driscoll’s men need a favour from Wales if they are to get their hands on the big prize.
If the Welsh manage to topple France in Cardiff in a match which kicks off two hours before the England-Ireland encounter, the Irish will be playing for their first outright championship since 1985 – not that O’Driscoll is giving that much thought.
A narrow French victory could still leave the door open for Ireland, who would have to beat the World Cup winners by at least 30 points.
“If you start worrying about championships when you’re playing England, you’d be a silly boy,” said O’Driscoll.
“You’ve got to go out and win the game and, if Wales do us a favour then great. But you can’t start thinking about winning by ‘x’ number of points against England.
“If you gave me a one-point win now, I’d certainly take it. I don’t think there’ll be too many of the lads inquiring about the score in Cardiff. We’ll just be getting on with the job of trying to beat England.
“To win three in a row against them would be very special but it’s not about getting one over on England, it’s what comes at the end of it, it’s about getting silverware.”
