Gerry Thornleytalks to the relaxed Irish captain who, freed of the burden of similar duty this time with the Lions, is relishing his time in South Africa

IRELAND’S GRAND Slam- winning captain would have been acutely disappointed he wasn’t given the honour of becoming only the second two-time Lions captain. Now that he’s back among the foot-soldiers, though, albeit as one of Paul O’Connell’s chief lieutenants, the distinct impression is he’s quite enjoying not being in his countryman’s shoes.

On top of his Lions leadership brief four years ago, he’s been captain of Ireland for six years, and for three of those he was also captain of Leinster. It’s been an awful lot of captaincy. It’s almost as if the memory of all those onerous responsibilities from four years ago has liberated him, allowing him to enjoy the tour more and focus more on his own game. The impression, it transpires, is true.

“Yeah, it is very different,” O’Driscoll admitted yesterday. “I’ve been able to sit back, and (with) less pressure probably been able to enjoy it that little bit more, and not worry about being a frontal kind of a figurehead. Definitely I’ve just been able to be another number, which has been fantastic. I’ve really enjoyed that aspect.”

As the player who captains O’Connell et al when with Ireland, O’Driscoll admits it’s been difficult to stay quiet. It almost appears as if some sections of the travelling media are preparing the ground for blaming O’Connell if the series goes belly-up, but O’Driscoll describes the captain as the man to follow.

“Paulie plays incredibly honestly, he just works so hard. When you see your leader working his socks off and showing you the way to go forward, you want to weigh in behind that and I think he does that incredibly well.

“I’ve spoken to Paulie and he says this isn’t a hugely difficult team to captain because there’s so many knowledgeable footballers, so many guys who are top in their national teams – leaders in themselves. It doesn’t often require him to say a huge amount.

“But he’s got the balance right and I think he’s been very good in all the games he’s played. Even in the games we’ve struggled in he’s probably been one of the stand-out figures.”

Kept on their toes by the selection policy, O’Driscoll concurs with O’Connell that this Lions team is more together, and better primed, than the one of four years ago was at this point. Pointing out that the entire squad trained together this week, he said: “It’s been slightly different that way than four years ago. It’s been good.”

O’Driscoll has had an incredible season, ticking a few empty boxes in his illustrious career, but after two losing Lions tours he has another last chance to tick perhaps the only remaining one.

“I want to be part of a winning Lions series, I’ve said it from day one. And I said I had no interest in coming and touring and being part of a squad that lost the series. I’ve been there and done that, I would like now to be part of a team that creates history and does something special, and it starts Saturday for us.”

With experience, and his recent successes, also comes an inner calmness. By contrast, some of the Lions’ test debutants might be hyper ventilating as the kick-off nears, and O’Driscoll accepts that part of his remit will be to help them relax.

“But this is where you want to be. This is the pinnacle for a rugby player in Britain and Ireland, playing in a Test match against a Southern Hemisphere team but preferably the world champions, as South Africa are. So where else would you want to be but in Durban come kick-off time on Saturday? To take it in, to enjoy the atmosphere and the occasion, and try and create something but don’t put too much pressure on yourself. People are picked on their ability and how they’ve played throughout the season, so they don’t have to change anything this time around.”

Used sparingly, like a thoroughbred, O’Driscoll hasn’t been on a losing side since January 17th, featuring in 13 successive wins for Leinster, Ireland and the Lions, in which he has scored seven tries and picked up every pot and pan on offer along the way.

His sheer presence, not to mention the footwork, spatial awareness and offloading and all the other aspects he brings to a near-complete outside centre, palpably energised the Lions in the 74-10 and 39-3 wins over the Golden Lions and Cheetahs.

Hence, perhaps the one area of the pitch where you feel the Lions might have a distinct edge is in midfield where, in their two outings to date, he and Jamie Roberts have appeared to strike up a near telepathic understanding and balance.

“I think we’ve clicked reasonably well but we’re a work in progress. We’ve enjoyed playing with one another, he’s a big, physical guy but he’s got nice skills too. People probably don’t give him the credit he deserves and he’s the sort of guy who it’s nice to play off his shoulder. Hopefully he’ll keep the South African defence honest with some of his lines and I’ll try to play off his breaks. You can’t foresee the way it is going to go, but he’s multi-skilled which, for an outside centre, is nice to play off.”

With all of this comes a huge responsibility on him to be the Lions’ talisman. When discussing this game the Springbok players seem not especially clued in to all the names and likely Lions line-up, but the one player they consistently refer to is O’Driscoll.

The man’s status simply supersedes every other Lion here, and without the added burden of captaincy, he’s revelling in it.