O'Driscoll laments Alfie's absence

Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll is disappointed not to be lining out against his Welsh counterpart Gareth Thomas in Sunday’s Six Nations clash at Lansdowne Road, but he clearly does not share the same affection for another Welsh Grand Slam hero.

Welsh captain Thomas, nicknamed 'Alfie', damaged an artery in his neck and will miss the game.  He and O’Driscoll were Lions teammates in New Zealand in the summer, along with Gavin Henson, who has missed the opening of this year’s Six Nations through suspension.

O’Driscoll describes Thomas as one of the "great characters of the game" and lamented his absence for Sunday while sarcastically suggesting that he and his teammates will be signing a ‘welcome back’ card for Henson before his arrival.

Of Thomas O’Driscoll said: "Anyone being struck down the way he has been is not a nice thing and the fact that I know ‘Alfie’ reasonably well from the summer and having met up with him at the Six Nations launch...I looked forward to playing with him and socialising with him after the game, because he is one of the real characters of the game and you always like to meet up with those guys."

Henson missed the autumn internationals with a groin strain and then incurred a lengthy suspension for elbowing Leicester prop Alex Moreno during the Ospreys’ Heineken Cup defeat against the Tigers in December.

His controversial and drastically premature autobiography also caused some unrest in the Welsh dressing room, while his behaviour on tour with the Lions marked him out as anything but a team player.

"We have got a meeting later on and we are all going to sign a big A4 card for him," joked O’Driscoll before checking his sarcasm. "Its been a tough season for Gavin, having been injured for so long, and then I guess he brought on the second part of his sabbatical himself.

"He’s back in the side, he’s obviously played well enough and is good enough to be in the Welsh 22, so if he comes on he will be treated exactly the same as any other Welsh player."

Predictably the Ireland captain is not sure what to expect from a side that has just lost their coach, after Mike Ruddock stepped down last week, and similarly he maintains the focus has to be on his own side’s performance and not that of their opponents.

"It could be one of two things really. I don’t really look into it in too much depth to be honest, all we need to concentrate on is our own performance and our own game.

"If you cut out handing four tries away to any side I think you are going to give them a good game, particularly with the way we know we played in the second half (in Paris). I think if we can play somewhere along those lines we won’t be far away from the performance we want to put in, but it will have to be for 80 minutes."

O’Driscoll has never been one to omit himself from the collective criticism and reflecting on defeat in Paris he was not about to do that today.  He believes his game is improving since his recent return from injury but there are still things that need to be cut out.

"It went okay, there were parts of it that I was pleased with. Some mistakes, like everyone else, that I need to cut out. A couple of loose passes, a turnover here and there and there were some good aspects to it as well.  The fact that I got a more intense 75 minutes of rugby over there, hopefully that will stand to me.

"It was completely different to any style of rugby that I have played yet this season and I certainly knew about it on the Sunday."

A contributing factor to the Irish revival in Paris was the introduction of Andrew Trimble on the wing with 15 minutes remaining. The Ulster back looked lively in testing circumstances and claimed his third try on his third cap.  He may well have had another only for O’Driscoll to choose Murphy as receiver later on.

Trimble will now start on the wing against Wales and his skipper believes he may do so for some time.

"He looks really sharp at training," said O’Driscoll. "He’s taken his chance when he has come on in games, or when he started games in November, and he thoroughly deserves his opportunity to be in the starting 15.

"He is a very exciting talent and a guy that is going to be there for the future and I don’t see any reason why he can’t cement a place down now for himself - whether it be in the centre or whether it be on the wing - I think he is equally adaptable to either position."