Brian O’Driscoll does not have cause for many regrets from his playing career.
There is the obvious one, of course, when he was ditched from the side just before what was going to be his final British & Irish Lions match.
Plus the time he had his shoulder dislocated by a spear tackle in New Zealand, also while on Lions duty.
Other than that, everything was pretty stellar. The former Ireland captain is happy in retirement, too, but has just the one thing which he would have changed.
Ideally, the ageing process would have postponed its work for one more year, and he could have been part of a potentially major 12 months for Ireland.
Last year was an exceptional one for the Irish team. They won the Six Nations, with a 13-10 away loss to England the only blemish, while their nine wins included victories over Australia and South Africa.
Perpetuating that success in a World Cup year will be a tough ask, but O’Driscoll thinks there is one notable reason for optimism. Namely, the fact that Joe Schmidt is the coach.
“It is a regret I’m not going into a World Cup with Joe Schmidt coaching the team,” said O’Driscoll, whose said his two quarter-final exits in World Cups represented underachievement.
“His attention to detail is unrivalled. If there is a professional game of rugby going on, he has seen it.
“If you call him and tell him about a play you have seen, he will know about it. He has a photographic memory about rugby.”
Schmidt, who coached O’Driscoll with provincial side Leinster first, then Ireland from 2013, oversaw Six Nations success during his first campaign in charge last year.
That tournament was notable for the fact that Ireland conceded the fewest penalties and turnovers of any side.
Their title defence, which starts in Italy tomorrow, should benefit from a favourable draw, too.
They host France and England in Dublin, and have had plenty of success in Cardiff in the recent past.
“He is a phenomenal thinker on the game and what players like about him is that it is not just the guys who have scored the tries and get the headlines,” O’Driscoll said of his former coach.
“It is the ones who have cleaned out rucks that have lead to the tries.
“He will have a quiet word to that guy and say, ‘I know that wouldn’t have been a try if you hadn’t done that.’ He is a real players’ coach.”
pradley@thenational.ae
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Armies of Sand
By Kenneth Pollack (Oxford University Press)
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hall of shame
SUNDERLAND 2002-03
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
Joined Derby as the only team to be relegated in March. No striker scored until January, while only two players got more assists than goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. The mid-season appointment Jan Siewert was to end his time as Huddersfield manager with a 5.3 per cent win rate.
ASTON VILLA 2015-16
Perhaps the most inexplicably bad season, considering they signed Idrissa Gueye and Adama Traore and still only got 17 points. Villa won their first league game, but none of the next 19. They ended an abominable campaign by taking one point from the last 39 available.
FULHAM 2018-19
Terrible in different ways. Fulham’s total of 26 points is not among the lowest ever but they contrived to get relegated after spending over £100 million (Dh457m) in the transfer market. Much of it went on defenders but they only kept two clean sheets in their first 33 games.
LA LIGA: Sporting Gijon, 13 points in 1997-98.
BUNDESLIGA: Tasmania Berlin, 10 points in 1965-66
Villains
Queens of the Stone Age
Matador
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
I Feel Pretty
Dir: Abby Kohn/Mark Silverstein
Starring: Amy Schumer, Michelle Williams, Emily Ratajkowski, Rory Scovel
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
