Until you win a series, it’s difficult to place yourself in that elite group of great Lions players. It’s not enough to produce one-off performances or be nearly-men. – Brian O’Driscoll
Timmy Horan was a childhood hero. He was a great distributor, elusive, good stepper, very physical, defensively very sound. What a rounded player. – Brian O’Driscoll
Dressing rooms can be vicious places, in the best possible way, from a slagging point of view. – Brian O’Driscoll
I would always treat my attacking game as the more natural part. With defence, you have to get yourself in positions to understand the game and understand situations and that might not be as natural a thing. – Brian O’Driscoll
I tell you one you straight off in Scotland – Nick de Luca. I don’t see his name quoted, but I’ve played against Nick quite a lot and he is a good player – one of the trickiest centres I’ve played against. – Brian O’Driscoll
When you talk to family and friends, they can’t tell you anything from an impartial point of view because they have a vested interest in you. – Brian O’Driscoll
Games bring another level out in you. There is no way you can train to the same intensity when you are playing a game. It is just impossible. Your head won’t allow you to do it. Because the adrenalin of a game and the importance of it steps it up to another level. – Brian O’Driscoll
I’ve been a professional rugby player all my life; I don’t really know anything different. – Brian O’Driscoll
I don’t care that people thought I was one way for my whole career because now that I am not attached to a team, I can have my own opinion, I can have my own voice. I can link myself to my own thought process rather than a generic message most teams try to get across. – Brian O’Driscoll
I’m very happy to have been a one-club man, but I wouldn’t shoot down guys who have gone off and played in multiple clubs either because, essentially, it is an earning that people are after. – Brian O’Driscoll
I have ambitions to set records which will be hard to chase down, like getting more than 100 caps for Ireland. – Brian O’Driscoll
Everyone has tests in their life. They come in lots of different forms. I had two or three together, which definitely challenged me as a person and as a sportsman. The big thing is how you react to those situations. You want to come out positively at the other end, and that’s what I focused on doing. – Brian O’Driscoll
You’ve to celebrate the good days because there are brutal days that make the good ones sweet. – Brian O’Driscoll
I had come across a few sports psychologists, and I had no time for nearly all of them. I just don’t think they work in a team environment. – Brian O’Driscoll
Before there was any chance to go to England, I changed schools, and it was rugby from there on in. – Brian O’Driscoll