Captain's strain a well kept secret

RUGBY / Six Nations: Much of the inspiration for Ireland's second Triple Crown in three years had looked as if it might be missing from the fray 24 hours before Saturday's game against England at Twickenham.

Brian O'Driscoll, a key figure in much of Ireland's best rugby on the day, was considered doubtful enough on Friday with a hip-flexor strain for Denis Hickie to be flown over as cover.

The team captain awoke on Friday morning with a sore hip flexor, and required treatment throughout the day and evening from physio Brian Green. O'Driscoll therefore missed the so-called "captain's run" the day before the Six Nations finale.

Rather than call up one of the young guns in the A team, such as Tommy Bowe or Robert Kearney, who were due to play that night against their English counterparts in Gloucester, coach Eddie O'Sullivan had Hickie catch a flight from Ireland, clearly believing a tilt at the Triple Crown against the reigning world champions in their Twickenham fortress required a more experienced player.

Presumably therefore, had O'Driscoll been ruled out, Andrew Trimble would have moved into midfield and either Hickie or Girvan Dempsey would have started on the left wing.

"When Jason White had split his head against us the week before, he had collided with my hip," recalled O'Driscoll yesterday. "It had been fine all week but when I woke up on Friday morning my hip flexor was very sore. It must have been the way I was sleeping on it and when I stepped into the shower it felt even worse.

"I was a bit worried about it but I worked all day on it with Brian Green and skipped the training."

Various sources indicate the concern within the camp was quite real about the prospects of Ireland's inspirational captain not being fit to play, though O'Driscoll himself says, "Denis was flown over as a precaution."

In any event, the management were keen to keep the matter under wraps for fear of alerting the opposition, and there was an anxious wait to learn how painful the hip was when O'Driscoll awoke on the day of the game.

"That was the key really, and to be honest, it felt much better. I knew the adrenaline of the occasion would help me get through the match as well, although as it turned out all I needed was a couple of anti-inflammatories and I got through the game without any pain."

Had he not, it might have been a grievous blow. Aside from all he had done in the first 78 minutes O'Driscoll was, of course, a key figure in the 79th-minute match-winning try, which will become as much a part of Irish rugby lore as Ginger McLoughlin's famous try at the same venue in Ireland's Triple Crown campaign of 1982.

Not only did he have the pace and anticipation to latch on to Ronan O'Gara's deft chip from inside the 22 over the advancing English backline, he did so at pace and released Shane Horgan before then taking the recycled ball into contact, from which Peter Stringer located Horgan once more.

"Of course, being a model professional, one of the prices I had to pay was to drink nothing but water that night to help the healing process," he smiled.

Of course. O'Driscoll and the other Leinster players involved in Saturday's famous win linked up with their provincial squad-mates on Monday evening before taking a two-day break, and O'Driscoll - soon to resume the Leinster captaincy - anticipates being able to train tomorrow.

"It's great to have a couple of days off, as much to refresh the brain as the body," he said. "The way the Celtic League fixtures have panned out it's not ideal to have a free weekend this weekend and then have to play Toulouse away in the Heineken Cup quarter-final the following Saturday, but in some respects it's not the worst either and we'll just have to use that extra time to prepare properly."

Saturday's game attracted the highest Irish television audience for the Six Nations, some 643,000 tuning into RTÉ and a remarkable 821,000 watching the dramatic climax.The tournament will be live and free to air on RTÉ television until at least 2009.