O'Driscoll shouldn't be Captain

PH01

Brian O'Driscoll's performance as captain last Saturday was well below what would be expected. When the team was falling apart, he was nowhere to be seen.
Bring back Woodie - fit or unfit.

jonno

That's a load of hogwash. Because a player has a poor performance it does not mean that he should lose his captainsy. As far as Im concerned Ireland won the match and they are on the way to the Grand Slam with O' Driscoll captaining them throughout the campaign. Fair played to him.

suppafly

Originally posted by jonno
That's a load of hogwash. Because a player has a poor performance it does not mean that he should lose his captainsy. As far as Im concerned Ireland won the match and they are on the way to the Grand Slam with O' Driscoll captaining them throughout the campaign. Fair played to him.

exactly my point too

mike65

I think I'm right in saying Ireland has won every game O''Driscoll has captained, so keep him! Anyway one poor performance is'nt reason to demote him.

Mike.

ps When is Woody comming back?

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

PH01

Originally posted by daveirl
I'd prefer him not to. Here's why:

The most important thing a hooker has to do is throw lineout ball. Now I don't think anyone can argue that Woody is good at this and he certainly doesn't compare to Byrne.

So you say but Woody can play well in the open. But hold on a second don't we already have an abundance of talent in the backs and besides that it was clear to see that Keith Wood started to believe his own hype what with Drop Goal attempts and chips etc...

Mullet Byrne is great at throwing the ball. He was fantastic in the windy French match. But he isn't the leader of the pack.
When the scrum was falling apart last Saturday there was no one there in the pack to pull it together.
My criticism of O'Driscoll is that when the forwards were having a bad time, he didn't go up to them to give them his support. Any other captain would have, whether he was a forward or back.

daveirl

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PH01

I'm bringing this up again prompted by last Saturdays performance.
Brian O'Driscoll, great as he is, isn't up for the job as captain. When his team was struggling, he didn't get in there to fix the problem.
Leinster should have put away Biarritz without too much bother, but instead they didn't - they didn't seem interested inthe game. A captain should see this happening on the pitch. It's his job to look afterthe team while on the pitch. This in my opinion he didn't do.

daveirl

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PH01

I agree that O'Driscoll leads by example, and he works really hard at it and very committed. But he probably relies on it too much. When your forwards are getting pushed around and getting bad call from the ref, the captain needs to get in there and sort it out.
If he's to be successful in the job he needs to become more vocal.
Martin Johnson at the Grand Slam match three weeks ago showed a master class on 'How to be a captain'. It couldn't have been easy leading a team out against Ireland in a packed Lansdowne Road. But he did. He came out as if he owned the place, as if he and his team were about to play in the home ground. And they played like they were at home.
Martin Johnson has shown the way for Brian O'Driscoll. Here's hoping that he's a quick learner.

Lennoxschips

Keith Wood is Ireland's main man, let's hope he's fit for the World Cup.

Sundy

im not so sure about wood either. He is a an excellent player but he tends to try and do the work of the half backs and his own and im sorry but i dont think his work rate matches byrne's. As for the captain i think it should be a member of the pack but there is no one influential enough there at the moment.

Johnny_the_fox

Originally posted by Lennoxschips
Keith Wood is Ireland's main man, let's hope he's fit for the World Cup.

you said it....

but i think O'Driscoll... does a good job until Wood comes back <if he comes back>

xern

According to this woody will haveit hard to get back into the team!

http://www.rugby.ie/news/story.asp?j=1623

i think its time for him to hang up his boots!

PH01

Agreed on Woody - his days as Irish captain are over. He would even have bother getting on the Irish team