O Driscoll had a genius rugby brain, he was constantly innovating in real time, making calculations in milliseconds , his rugby intelligence was off the charts, combine that with his athletic ability and his lines of running, his complete awareness of where everyone was on the pitch and his ferocious competitiveness and you have a once in a lifetime player, he is sorely missed in the game.
Thank you, Andrew. For Leinster, Ireland, and the Lions at any point in his 15 year career, whenever he was on the pitch there was a significantly greater chance of victory.
Great comment. And I think that's the mark of greatness. If McCaw, Du Poit, Dupont, Wilkinson etc etc are on the pitch you have a better chance of winning
I saw him play his final pro game ever in the pro 14 final in 2014 against Glasgow. He went off injured at 20 mins and remember all the Glasgow fans stood up to give a standing ovation as well as it was the last time they would see him play.
Certain New Zealanders who never played at a high level like to belittle him and call him overrated. Most who played against him talk about him with awe. Game respects game
Are you Irish by any chance??? certainly a contender but JD, Nonu, Horen, Gerber, Bunce and i'm probably forgetting some difficult to chose between all those as the best, so yes it is controversial to say BOD is the GOAT.
O'Driscoll had the razzle-dazzle early in his career and continually adapted to being a brilliant defender and brilliant leader later on. That's what true greats do.
He started to be marked so closely by opponents that he started being used as a decoy more and more. Every now and then we’d see some of the stardust but it was more often doing the basics brilliantly rather than the magic of his early years.
I think O'Driscoll was wasted potential. And that being said, was still one of the best to play the game. The razzle-dazzle as you said, was coached out of him. He played under two coaches who would murder you if you tried an offload or a side step. Their game was contact, go to ground and recycle, which he was excellent at, or else box kick til you're blue in the face, which unfortunately directed him to become a more defensive player.
@@peterl9022true enough. Would have loved to see him play in Farrels system. The late era O'Driscoll for Schmidt was a defensive freak show to be fair to him. He aged brilliantly
100 percent the GOAT. No one with the skill set, work rate, application *and* leadership of the man. As good defensively as in attack and changed the position to boot, bringing flanker levels of skill into it. Also need to take into account that Internationally at least was playing in a team that unlike many of the top 13s people bring up, was not strong at the time.
@housey4297 I've been watching rugby for over 50 years ,,,quite it a rest ,,,,BOD is only rated In the north and by the overhyped uk press ,,,just have a watch on you tube of danie gerber ,,,!might learn something ,,,,,
@tobolee6385 I've seen you comment a few times this same comment. What's your agenda? You clearly have a personal hate on BOD. It's pathetic. You must be English.
I wish Brian was around 10 years earlier, he's the reason i got into rugby and would have loved to have been able to join a rugby club during my school days
I've watched Drico in Blue, Green and Red jerseys and chatted with him many times behind the Anglesey stand or outside the Shelbourne, and he never failed to be anything other than humble. Everyone that dons the 13 jersey will be compared to him because he really was as good as the press would say.
As someone who came into loving the game in the 2000s (those who were great in the 90s and before were before my time) When it comes to the best 13 ever to play the game its always betweed BOD and Conrad Smith. I watch a lot of southern hemisphere rugby so im biased to Conrad, plus i feel he was not as physically gifted in terms of speed and agility as O'driscoll so in essence he did more with less, a thinking man's rugby player. If you say O'driscoll was the best though, I totally understand so long as Mr. Smith gets a very honourable mention 😂
Being as 13 is arguably the most important back, if not the most important player on a team, who is the best 13 to play the modern game? O’Driscoll, C. Smith, Mortlock, Jacques Fourie, Am, Jason Little, Jonathan Davies, Tana Umaga…
O'Driscoll was the all round player; hard, fast runner with a kickers background and put in his tackles well. Drop goals, place kicking, garryowens, grubbers and clearance kicks are all second nature and brilliantly utilized, which sets him apart I think.
I would pay good money for someone to compile all of his test tries. Unfortunately about 10 of them can't be found on the internet, or at least I haven't found them. Fixtures against Fiji/Japan etc. I would just love to see all 46, makes me sad that there are test tries from this genius we'll never see.
Hes the one rugby player i miss watching more than any other player ever! He had it all he was magical in attack and magical in defense. If you could ever say such a thing as greatest rugby player ever it would be BOD without question for me.
For me it was his fast acting rugby brain. He reacted to half chances that defenders didnt see and before they could react he had already created a chance and was gone. When he was young that was aligned with explosive pace. Look at his famous hatrick v france in 2000. His third try the ball was bobbling along the ground and looked like the move was over but he exploded onto it scopped it up while still accelerating and just was gone. What a player.
The best analogy i heard a sports journo use about bod and how he was over used was "they where given a Ferrari amd treated it like a tractor". He was unreal but we should have looked after him better.
10:06 that try was EXACTLY what makes Brian the plsyer he was. He waitedcand waited and released the ball at the most awkward time for himsrlf to then allow Heaslip just to perfectly take the try.
@ he was still good but it wasn’t his prime. He says it himself in his book - he was a different player after 07 because he had lost some of his speed.
Just listening to the commentaries from the end of his career. All of them refer to him as the great man or one of the greatest or the man. There aren’t many players who are referred to with such high regard by all.
@@tvpc3194 I mean there are highlights there but probably because he played the six nations sides more often in his career - not his fault that’s how international rugby works🤷♂️
There are multiple clips of him against the ABs on there. As well as OZ when they were well up there. He also skippered Ireland to several wins vs SA And there is more of France and England than Sco or Ita.
Good player, had a long career. Scored only 6 tries against the SH teams but scored 41 against the NH. I can see why they would consider him to be great but against better teams he struggled. In attack his strike rate over 141 games is 32% and one of the lowest of outside centres. There were centres that had better strike rates in scoring, were better defenders and readers of the game but played less games and achieved more than this guy. Great player that falls in a box where there are many but he was not the best.
Those "better" players that you mentioned were in teams surrounded by world class players. O'Driscoll was one of the people that dragged Ireland out of the rugby dark ages. His Ireland team won a Grand Slam for the first time in 61 years. His Leinster side won 3 Heineken cups. Cultural impact is one metric for determining greatness. Jonah Lomu is one of the greats despite never winning a world cup. Mike Tyson became a world champion when there was no competition in the heavyweight division but his cultural impact makes him an all-timer.
@@rightkick_cemeterylike you said he was a great player in a average team. Maybe SH levels at his prime but scoring 1 try in every 8 games is pretty average. I also don't think he would have made it into a great team like the AB's, SA or Aus at that time. Just on the fact that the rugby levels were pretty high compared to the 6 nations even super rugby were at a higher level back then. But like Graham Henry, David Campese and a bunch of other rugby players don't think much of old O' Driscoll. And i have to say looking at his stats, its just the long career that stands out for me. He is like Alun wyn Jones just played for a long time thats all.
A wonderful example of how to use stats to paint a terrible and wrong story. Firstly the difference between SH teams and NH teams was far greater than it is today. Oz were a better team, and Ireland generally struggled against NZ and SA during his play days. One player won't fix that - ireland's team as a whole just didnt match the ABs 2000-2015 and neither the Boks. That does not change an exceptional player being exceptional within a team that never hit the top 4 in the world. He is also an outside centre, not a winger, so strike rate is not everything. Name a great outside centre with a great strike rate - Am? Smith? Gerber? Mortlock? All pretty comparable stats because their job isnt to score tries. In 06 he tore up SA with a lot of assists. In 09 he assisted a number of tries against the Boks. Its nice for a centre to get a lot of tries but not as if Conrad Smith's strike rate vs. number of caps is high - still one of the greatest 13s. Wingers are expected to have high strike rates but centres have to do more with defence, playmaking, opening space for other players etc. BOD always hit dominant tackles - see the video. He affected turnovers, has a bit of sparkle, and had pace and balance. Thats ideal for an outside centre and if he was an All Black or Bok hed probably be celebrated as the best tk ever play
@@jonnybaynham1689Look i am not even gonna read your story. I bet its nice. But at the end of the day you think he is a great player and other people think he is average at best. But you can't convince me otherwise.
Tbh I'm used to Saffa fans trying to insert themselves in every rugby narrative that doesn't involve them but the weirdest thing is black South Africans with Zulu surnames simping for a bunch of Dutch colonisers who only gave them the vote in the mid-90s.
O Driscoll had a genius rugby brain, he was constantly innovating in real time, making calculations in milliseconds , his rugby intelligence was off the charts, combine that with his athletic ability and his lines of running, his complete awareness of where everyone was on the pitch and his ferocious competitiveness and you have a once in a lifetime player, he is sorely missed in the game.
Prime was an awfully long period. Genius!
Thank you, Andrew. For Leinster, Ireland, and the Lions at any point in his 15 year career, whenever he was on the pitch there was a significantly greater chance of victory.
Great comment. And I think that's the mark of greatness. If McCaw, Du Poit, Dupont, Wilkinson etc etc are on the pitch you have a better chance of winning
I saw him play his final pro game ever in the pro 14 final in 2014 against Glasgow. He went off injured at 20 mins and remember all the Glasgow fans stood up to give a standing ovation as well as it was the last time they would see him play.
Class 👍
Every rugby playing country except Ireland breathed a sigh of relief when he retired.
Be real mare.odriscal meant nothing to the all blacks but a whinging crybaby
@@CocoLico-fh5pyYeah so little they had to injure him.
@johnmc3862 no shows how soft he was against Polynesian warriors lol
@@CocoLico-fh5py I assume you're also a Polynesian warrior, just with a keyboard lol
@@CocoLico-fh5pythe irony from you is brilliant
Certain New Zealanders who never played at a high level like to belittle him and call him overrated. Most who played against him talk about him with awe. Game respects game
Anyone that says he wasnt great either really doesnt understand the game of rugby or just hasnt seen enough of his games.
He would have walked into any team of the time perhaps even the ABs.
He may never have won a World Cup but I don’t think it’s at all controversial to say he’s the greatest 13 in history
@@Conish74 If i had to pick a team to play for my life I'd pick Frank Bunce any day of the week
Are you Irish by any chance??? certainly a contender but JD, Nonu, Horen, Gerber, Bunce and i'm probably forgetting some difficult to chose between all those as the best, so yes it is controversial to say BOD is the GOAT.
Conrad smith 🎉
@ good player. Not in the same stratosphere
@@sillafu8595 Nonu was an inside centre. He would cover at 13 but he never played it as well as O'Driscoll.
O'Driscoll had the razzle-dazzle early in his career and continually adapted to being a brilliant defender and brilliant leader later on. That's what true greats do.
He started to be marked so closely by opponents that he started being used as a decoy more and more. Every now and then we’d see some of the stardust but it was more often doing the basics brilliantly rather than the magic of his early years.
I think O'Driscoll was wasted potential. And that being said, was still one of the best to play the game. The razzle-dazzle as you said, was coached out of him. He played under two coaches who would murder you if you tried an offload or a side step. Their game was contact, go to ground and recycle, which he was excellent at, or else box kick til you're blue in the face, which unfortunately directed him to become a more defensive player.
@@peterl9022 Interesting take, there might be something to that but, as you say, the fact he could still flourish proves what a great player he was.
@@peterl9022true enough. Would have loved to see him play in Farrels system. The late era O'Driscoll for Schmidt was a defensive freak show to be fair to him. He aged brilliantly
The best 13 to ever play the game
i think so,
@@GoldenGoalposts frank bunce wud have smoked him!oh that's right tana did haha
@@CocoLico-fh5py that wimp Umaga didn’t even have the balls to flip BOD himself, do u think Mealamu lets him wear knee pads?
@@CocoLico-fh5pyyou are so triggered 😂😂😂😂
@jamieoshea1681 not at all lad
Dan Carter's "dream Team " 13. Brian O’Driscoll (Ireland)
12. Ma’a Nonu (New Zealand) .. no need to say more ...
Respect from Australia. One of the GOATS, that pass to himself at 2:11 is ludicrous.
Remember watching him scoring a hack trick vs France in Paris in 2000 I think. Was a kid at the time, and was crying in front of my TV 😅
The adults were too, trust me.
He was one of those special players that when he was on the pitch you'd expect something magical to happen and more often than not it did.
DuPont is the first player since, to remind me of the great man.
He is the definition of master class
He was quite fast, but what really set him apart was his balance and timing.
13 GOAT. By a country mile.
Lol northern hemisphere hype job ...DANIE GERBER best ever ...he was only big in northern hemisphere .. hype job just like du pont ...
100 percent the GOAT. No one with the skill set, work rate, application *and* leadership of the man. As good defensively as in attack and changed the position to boot, bringing flanker levels of skill into it. Also need to take into account that Internationally at least was playing in a team that unlike many of the top 13s people bring up, was not strong at the time.
@@tobolee6385 you are not a rugby player that's obvious
@housey4297 I've been watching rugby for over 50 years ,,,quite it a rest ,,,,BOD is only rated In the north and by the overhyped uk press ,,,just have a watch on you tube of danie gerber ,,,!might learn something ,,,,,
@tobolee6385 I've seen you comment a few times this same comment. What's your agenda? You clearly have a personal hate on BOD. It's pathetic. You must be English.
I wish Brian was around 10 years earlier, he's the reason i got into rugby and would have loved to have been able to join a rugby club during my school days
SH fans seething everytime BOD is mentioned will never not be funny.
Just another northern hemisphere hype job...usual british press 💩💩💩💩
Not sure who you’re referring to mate. I don’t think anyone would disagree that he’s a legend
@@brennybiAgree, he's a legend. Lucky he wasn't born 15 years later.
@@ShiNooBi1986 Implying he couldn't hack it today? I doubt that
The actual goat. Yet there's really FaceBok's (the Facebook SA fans) that claim BOD wouldnt even make a Curry Cup team 🤦
Sure, there are school boys in SA that are better.....
@@Cpchurch87South Africa try not to cry an make it about them challenge: impossible
@@jamieoshea1681 bless them. They provide an endless source of entertainment
Thanks for the upload, Andrew- BOD's rugby intelligence was off the scale!
I genuinely considered stopping watching rugby when he retired 🤣
Definitely the best center of all time.
Nonu
@@Wormholt nah
@@Wormholt
NoNo
Rugby poetry in motion. What a rugby brain with the skills to implement
The George best of rugby without the side effects.
Ireland were shit in the 90s. Then he came along and the game exploded on the island.
I've watched Drico in Blue, Green and Red jerseys and chatted with him many times behind the Anglesey stand or outside the Shelbourne, and he never failed to be anything other than humble. Everyone that dons the 13 jersey will be compared to him because he really was as good as the press would say.
As someone who came into loving the game in the 2000s (those who were great in the 90s and before were before my time) When it comes to the best 13 ever to play the game its always betweed BOD and Conrad Smith. I watch a lot of southern hemisphere rugby so im biased to Conrad, plus i feel he was not as physically gifted in terms of speed and agility as O'driscoll so in essence he did more with less, a thinking man's rugby player. If you say O'driscoll was the best though, I totally understand so long as Mr. Smith gets a very honourable mention 😂
He is a great player….regards from Christchurch NZ, I’m proud that I have got a good dollop of Irish DNA, going back 5 Generations.
Thank you, he was one of the greatest of all time.
Being as 13 is arguably the most important back, if not the most important player on a team, who is the best 13 to play the modern game? O’Driscoll, C. Smith, Mortlock, Jacques Fourie, Am, Jason Little, Jonathan Davies, Tana Umaga…
O'Driscoll was the all round player; hard, fast runner with a kickers background and put in his tackles well. Drop goals, place kicking, garryowens, grubbers and clearance kicks are all second nature and brilliantly utilized, which sets him apart I think.
Am? 😂
Top video mate
I would pay good money for someone to compile all of his test tries. Unfortunately about 10 of them can't be found on the internet, or at least I haven't found them. Fixtures against Fiji/Japan etc. I would just love to see all 46, makes me sad that there are test tries from this genius we'll never see.
Hes the one rugby player i miss watching more than any other player ever!
He had it all he was magical in attack and magical in defense.
If you could ever say such a thing as greatest rugby player ever it would be BOD without question for me.
Goat
No such thing as "prime O'Driscoll", just simply O'Driscoll.
For me it was his fast acting rugby brain. He reacted to half chances that defenders didnt see and before they could react he had already created a chance and was gone. When he was young that was aligned with explosive pace. Look at his famous hatrick v france in 2000. His third try the ball was bobbling along the ground and looked like the move was over but he exploded onto it scopped it up while still accelerating and just was gone. What a player.
If Iniesta could defend like Keane..
Must be one of the best high light reels. He did it against the big boys too.
Really great reel. Pure magic.🍀☘️🍀
What a amazing player. He played alongside some great players too
Just imagine if he was playing now in his prime with the Irish team now they would be unstoppable.
Friday Filth from Fordey! Giddy up
And this is the confidence, pace & skill level that has left the current Ireland squad to some degree. I hope it returns.
The best analogy i heard a sports journo use about bod and how he was over used was "they where given a Ferrari amd treated it like a tractor". He was unreal but we should have looked after him better.
Rugby God
X- Factor 💐
Watching these back I'd forgotten just how explosively fast he was in his early days!
Balance, accleration, vision, hands, power. Not many more well-rounded backs in history.
Unreal acceleration.
The best number 13 ever 2 play the game 👏
Salty comments from either a saffa or kiwi⬆️
Great compilation
He was in his prime for so long some of these clips are basically in black and white
Apples and oranges, yes he was one of the greats, some of the others mentioned played on better teams than Ireland, which helps I think.
10:06 that try was EXACTLY what makes Brian the plsyer he was. He waitedcand waited and released the ball at the most awkward time for himsrlf to then allow Heaslip just to perfectly take the try.
A sub prime o driscoll was pretty good too
Once in a lifetime… imagine this backline: DuPont, Carter, Habanna, Nonu, o Driscoll, Kolbe, Cullen
Great video. Reminds us just how incredible he was.
He was just everywhere.
Honorary non-Dub citizenship 😂
The first Irish name the All Blacks ever learned
Who is the most gifted centre between BOD, Henshaw and Ringrose ?
All 3 are great, but no match for Mike Gibson
He would have been great at any sport. We are lucky he found Rugby.
Keen hell 😅 one of my all time favorites. What flair
God watching this is so sad, makes you realise there is just no one in rugby like him foing these things these days
Was his play at 2:10 legal?
Legend
Plays like an All Black
His prime was 2000-2007
@@Cathal-t4h he captained Ireland to a grand slam in 2009 and scored some huge tries in that campaign
@ true but it wasn’t his prime. He was awesome before 07 when he still had full pace.
@ went on lions tour in 2009!
@ he was still good but it wasn’t his prime. He says it himself in his book - he was a different player after 07 because he had lost some of his speed.
Just listening to the commentaries from the end of his career. All of them refer to him as the great man or one of the greatest or the man. There aren’t many players who are referred to with such high regard by all.
Did he ever score against NZ?
Yes
Magnificent player. Irelands best
My first name on any team sheet. And I'm English!
Irish rugby was never so good - we may have won more since he retired, but Irish rugby was at it’s most entertaining during his era.
Carter umaga o Driscoll rocococko rupeni Cullen
howlett.
The BOD
Terrible pundit though!
Definitely the best Irish centre. Wouldn’t say the best centre ever
Scott Gibbs, sonny bill, Umanga, Danie Gerber
He’s very obviously objectively better than any of them
Scott Gibbs 😂 I want whatever you’re smoking
@@John-ny7jn Gibbs was a great old center. Not much of a footballer, more of a rhino.
@@John-ny7jn not sure why I thought of him😂😂😂
All I remember was the attempted murder he did to Dani Rossouw that ultimately it’s cost lions the series.
where is his highlights against SA and NZ they are all against Scotland and Italy lol
@@tvpc3194 I mean there are highlights there but probably because he played the six nations sides more often in his career - not his fault that’s how international rugby works🤷♂️
He had SA on toast in autumn 06 and formed a great partnership with Roberts against them in 09.
The All Blacks had to injure BOD in 05 because they feared him.
There are multiple clips of him against the ABs on there. As well as OZ when they were well up there. He also skippered Ireland to several wins vs SA And there is more of France and England than Sco or Ita.
Most over-rated rugby player of all time
@@BronzeYohn by what measure?
@@AndrewDavidForde By the measure of someone who has zero knowledge of the game
Good player, had a long career.
Scored only 6 tries against the SH teams but scored 41 against the NH.
I can see why they would consider him to be great but against better teams he struggled.
In attack his strike rate over 141 games is 32% and one of the lowest of outside centres.
There were centres that had better strike rates in scoring, were better defenders and readers of the game but played less games and achieved more than this guy.
Great player that falls in a box where there are many but he was not the best.
Those "better" players that you mentioned were in teams surrounded by world class players. O'Driscoll was one of the people that dragged Ireland out of the rugby dark ages. His Ireland team won a Grand Slam for the first time in 61 years. His Leinster side won 3 Heineken cups. Cultural impact is one metric for determining greatness. Jonah Lomu is one of the greats despite never winning a world cup. Mike Tyson became a world champion when there was no competition in the heavyweight division but his cultural impact makes him an all-timer.
@@rightkick_cemeteryfantastic response to an naive post 👏 👏
@@rightkick_cemeterylike you said he was a great player in a average team.
Maybe SH levels at his prime but scoring 1 try in every 8 games is pretty average.
I also don't think he would have made it into a great team like the AB's, SA or Aus at that time.
Just on the fact that the rugby levels were pretty high compared to the 6 nations even super rugby were at a higher level back then.
But like Graham Henry, David Campese and a bunch of other rugby players don't think much of old O' Driscoll.
And i have to say looking at his stats, its just the long career that stands out for me.
He is like Alun wyn Jones just played for a long time thats all.
A wonderful example of how to use stats to paint a terrible and wrong story.
Firstly the difference between SH teams and NH teams was far greater than it is today. Oz were a better team, and Ireland generally struggled against NZ and SA during his play days. One player won't fix that - ireland's team as a whole just didnt match the ABs 2000-2015 and neither the Boks.
That does not change an exceptional player being exceptional within a team that never hit the top 4 in the world. He is also an outside centre, not a winger, so strike rate is not everything. Name a great outside centre with a great strike rate - Am? Smith? Gerber? Mortlock? All pretty comparable stats because their job isnt to score tries. In 06 he tore up SA with a lot of assists. In 09 he assisted a number of tries against the Boks. Its nice for a centre to get a lot of tries but not as if Conrad Smith's strike rate vs. number of caps is high - still one of the greatest 13s. Wingers are expected to have high strike rates but centres have to do more with defence, playmaking, opening space for other players etc.
BOD always hit dominant tackles - see the video. He affected turnovers, has a bit of sparkle, and had pace and balance. Thats ideal for an outside centre and if he was an All Black or Bok hed probably be celebrated as the best tk ever play
@@jonnybaynham1689Look i am not even gonna read your story. I bet its nice.
But at the end of the day you think he is a great player and other people think he is average at best.
But you can't convince me otherwise.
most overrated center ever. didn't see one thing in this entire video that made me go wow 🙄 go melt in the corner of you don't agree 😎
His greatest highlights show nothing of note against the All Blacks & Springboks. Really, he's just a pretender
Not a fan of rugby I take it?
Overrated
By what measure?
not rated enough
@@AndrewDavidForde By the measure of a fool
@@AndrewDavidForde doing it against top teams
@@tvpc3194examples?
A beast
Tbh I'm used to Saffa fans trying to insert themselves in every rugby narrative that doesn't involve them but the weirdest thing is black South Africans with Zulu surnames simping for a bunch of Dutch colonisers who only gave them the vote in the mid-90s.