France v Ireland:Brian O'Driscoll insists fear is an emotion he hasn't felt for some time in his career and that won't change when he lines out against 17-stone centre Mathieu Bastareaud at Stade de France tomorrow. In a marked contrast from when a 21-year-old O'Driscoll plundered three tries at the Parisian venue 10 years ago, Bastareaud is now one of the rising stars of world rugby, but the Ireland captain is confident he can still do the schooling.
The battle in the midfield will be one of the key areas of the game and the Leinster centre has suggested there pace and power might not be enough for Bastereaud to triumph.
“The days of being frightened are well and truly behind me,” said O’Driscoll after his captain’s run today. “Bastareaud is a powerful guy and is one of their in-form players.
“At that weight he might move well in a straight line but it doesn’t always shift as well when you run to the side of it.
“I’ll treat him like any other opponent - it just so happens that he’s four stone heavier.”
O’Driscoll today recalled his historic hat-trick and the 27-25 triumph win, a first in Paris since 1972, was a turning point in Irish rugby. Having not won there since, he feels it is time some of the younger members repeated the feat.
“My life changed a good bit. I didn’t realise how big a deal it was until I got home. It was a big change for Irish rugby,” he said. “A lot of new guys had come in during that Six Nations and after winning the mentality and focus of the team changed, hopefully for ever.
“If it did anything positive it changed the mentality of us as a rugby team and rugby nation.
“Winning in 2000 was part of the catalyst to how the game for us has changed. It would be silly to say it wasn’t.
“We hadn’t won in Paris for so long and it gave us the belief we could win if we played well.
“There are only three of us remaining from 10 years ago, so there are a lot of guys who haven’t won an international on French soil.
“These are little things that we want to pick off. It would mean a lot to the guys to win tomorrow.”
History may be stacked against them but Ireland are Grand Slam champions, a position that entitles them to a slight swagger - even in Paris.
On their previous two visits, Ireland were guilty of making suicidal starts that enabled France to establish half-time leads of 29-3 and 19-6. Both matches saw Les Bleus pegged back to 43-31 in 2006 and 26-21 in 2008 thanks to a pair of courageous fightbacks, but those defeats have highlighted the need to avoid conceding early tries.
“It’s disappointing that we haven’t won in Paris since 2000. We hoped we’d have stemmed the tide of losses by now,” he said. “There has been a mixture of games since then. Some of them have slipped away from us and we haven’t been able to get back in while in others we have given them seemingly unassailable leads and nearly chased them down.
“A focus of ours will be making sure we start the game well and don’t give them a score to defend.
“We don’t have to accept that France are going to come out of the blocks, it’s about trying to get out of the blocks ourselves and take the game to them.”
After squad members on both sides reference Thierry Henry’s infamous handball against Ireland in November as an intriguing backdrop to the game, O’Driscoll has dismissed it as something of a side show.
“For the Irish public in general maybe what happened in the football would make any victory all the sweeter but we ourselves see it as just another Six Nations game,” he said.
“We’re not getting caught up in revenge or retribution for what happened.
“When it happened I was disappointed like everyone else in the country and felt there was a bit of injustice. But it’s time to move on.”
Coach Declan Kidney, meanwhile, has allayed fears over the fitness of Stephen Ferris. The flanker missed this morning’s training after only being passed fit yesterday, but Kidney was quick to insist there is no element of risk in his selection.
“We’re not treating Stephen with kid gloves,” said Ireland’s coach. “It was prudent for him to sit training out as there’s a balance to strike when a player comes back in. Stephen is fine, he’s been charging around in training but we wanted to hold him back a bit.
“Kevin McLaughlin did a good job for us against Italy as his replacement but Stephen, despite being the younger player, has that little bit more big match experience. This back row has played together a bit — Stephen, David Wallace and Jamie Heaslip have an understanding of each other’s game.
“They compliment each other. Like the other lads, Stephen can carry, makes tackles and can operate in the line-out. France have so much experience in the back row and on the bench.
“We need every bit of experience we have out on the pitch so that we can stay with them for the whole 80 minutes.”
France v Ireland
Saturday, February 13th
Stade de France, 4.30pm
Ireland:France: Clement Poitrenaud (Toulouse); Vincent Clerc (Toulouse), Mathieu Bastareaud (Stade Francais), Yannick Jauzion (Toulouse), Alexis Palisson (Brive); Frangois Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), Morgan Parra (Clermont); Thomas Domingo (Clermont), William Servat (Toulouse), Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Lionel Nallet (Racing-Metro), Pascal Pape (Stade Francais); Thierry Dusautoir (Toulouse), Fulgence Ouedraogo (Montpellier), Imanol Harinordoquy (Biarritz) Replacements:Dimitri Szarzewski (Stade Francais), Sylvain Marconnet (Stade Francais), Julien Pierre (Clermont), Julien Bonnaire (Clermont), Frederic Michalak (Stade Toulousain), David Marty (Perpignan), Julien Malzieu (Clermont).
Ireland:Rob Kearney (Leinster); Tommy Bowe (Ospreys), Brian O'Driscoll (Leinster), Gordon D'Arcy (Leinster), Keith Earls (Munster); Ronan O'Gara (Munster), Tomas O'Leary (Munster); Cian Healy (Leinster), Jerry Flannery (Munster), John Hayes (Munster), Leo Cullen (Leinster), Paul O'Connell (Munster); Stephen Ferris (Ulster), David Wallace (Munster), Jamie Heaslip (Leinster) Replacements:Rory Best (Ulster) Tom Court (Ulster), Donnacha Ryan (Munster), Sean O'Brien (Leinster), Eoin Reddan (Leinster), Jonathan Sexton (Leinster), Paddy Wallace (Ulster),
Referee:Wayne Barnes (England)