As I take a seat, feeling somewhat diminished next to the still-burly Brian O’Driscoll, the styled hair and the business shirt tell me the 133 test veteran has well and truly left the game of rugby behind.
However his retained girth and the burning passion in his voice tells me that while his body may have left the game behind, his spirit certainly hasn’t. While he’s marginally smaller in muscle scope, it seems as if he could throw on the blue and yellow jersey and line up next to his beloved Leinster team mates tomorrow.
As part of O’Driscoll’s new role with BT Sport, I get an opportunity to discuss the upcoming European Champions Cup final with one of the living legends of the game. However, inevitably, the conversation kick starts by discussing his own career and musings of the game he walked away from over 12 months ago now.
Like most former sports men and women admit after hanging up the proverbial boots, he confesses he does miss the competition. “(I miss) the competitive feeling – the edge and the adrenalin that comes in the heat of battle”, BOD – as he’s been so affectionately known as in the past 16 years – says with that charming Irish brogue.
“I miss celebrating with the boys; I miss the bonding and the excitement of playing”.
But he doesn’t miss the pain that goes with it.
“I don’t miss the preparation for a match – the aches and pains that come after the game, the full bodied commitment needed” he explains as his eyes flicker out the window to a passing double decker bus.
Sitting in a conference room in BT’s headquarters in central London on one of the nicest, sunniest days London’s had for the past 6 months, it’s fair to say that BOD looks a tad uncomfortable with his new surroundings – the aforementioned business shirt and the office environment as opposed to the familiarity of his team mates in the shadow of a rugby field which on a day like this, would be delightful.
While the office is something BOD needs to get used to, his appointment to BT’s rugby panel ensures that he’s still very much a part of the game he loves so much. And why wouldn’t he be? With 133 tests for Ireland, eight tests on four consecutive tours with the British and Irish Lions, 49 tries for his country as well as one for the Lions, not to mention his various records with Leinster, the Irishman holds an enviable list of records as long as the tape on my dictaphone and would be an asset to any panel offering rugby insight.
As good as his records are, he bristles slightly when I bring up Brad Thorne’s recent comments comparing winning the World Cup with the All Blacks with winning the Heineken Cup with Leinster in 2012. Sensing a soft spot along with a slight tone of disappointment as the Rugby World Cup was the greatest trophy to elude the 36 year old, BOD said he could see the comparison in terms of expectation but lamented that it would have been tough to top a World Cup victory.
“I think he was talking from an excitement point of view. Obviously the ultimate honour is to win a world cup but that couldn’t have been exciting for him. It must have been this unbelievable drain on the whole nation. The fact that they won it 8-7 and the manner in which they won it in. The expectation is there. There’s no great fun to be drawn from something like that,” he says.
“(Leinster) played an exciting brand of rugby; he came in for a three month period. It was high energy and he joined a really good environment so I could see how he enjoyed the Heineken Cup experience. It’s fantastic that he thinks it was one of the great wins and it was lovely to be part of a winning Heineken cup competition with him, one of the greatest players to have played rugby union”.
As our time comes to an end, you can’t help but think that BOD is slightly relieved, the same kind of relief a player appears to feel in a post-game press conference when the journalists fall silent. From now on, BOD will not be answering the endless amount of questions but instead be asking them which he did admit was a little “daunting”.
Who would have thought that a rugby player with a career as extensive as his could ever be in a “daunting” environment again?