'I had to blind Rossouw': O'Driscoll on his famous Springbok tackle
As the British & Irish test series with the Springboks approaches, memories of the brutal second test from 2009 in Pretoria have been relived and scrutinised by players and pundits alike.
A key figure that match, Irish centre Brian O’Driscoll, remembers the aftermath of a defining game in test rugby. Speaking on behalf of Land Rover to the Daily Mail, he recalled going to hospital and seeing many of his teammates waiting for evaluation.
“When you looked around and saw how many people were in the hospital for specialist checkups, you realized the magnitude of the physicality,” he said. “I was dealing with a blurry mind, but it was a pretty bleak place.
O’Driscoll was involved in skirmishes across the park after Springbok flanker Schalk Burger set the tone after being yellow-carded for eye gouging. He remembers the Springbok hooker Bismarck du Plessis trying to intimidate him on the field, saying if that happened now the game would be stopped.
“They tried to get physical with us from the start,” O’Driscoll said. “I remember Bismarck du Plessis standing over me in a ruck and pretending to kick me. We don’t need a repeat of the Burger incident, but he got away with blue murder.
“If that happened now, it would be a shutdown. There is now more control, there are more cameras and there is better surveillance against those incidents.”
He shared the Lions approach to the game which was to ‘stand up to the bully’ in order to get their respect. That meant playing on the edge to return some fire, giving it ‘as good as you get’.
“The thing about people who try to bully you is that once you stand up to them and bully them back, they calm down,” he said.
“That’s how you get their respect. If you succumb to that, they will never respect you. You have to give as good as you get.
The Lions centre was concussed in a sickening collison with Springbok lock Danie Rossouw in the second half of the game. O’Driscoll shared that he was intentional in his approach in order to ‘blindside’ the big man, coming from the side to hit him as hard as he could without detection, but both players came off with concussion.
“If I’m in the second row, I have to overwhelm them. I have to anticipate where the collision will be and hit them before they see an eye line coming in from me.
“If we both see it equally, there will only be one winner. I had to blind Rossouw, not let him see me coming, and launch myself as hard as I could. It was about making a mark and setting a tone.
O’Driscoll played on after the damaging hit, unthinkable in today’s game with safety protocols in place. Even though his health may have been at risk, O’Driscoll looks back fondly on the game as an example of great Lions rugby.
“That Springbok team in ’09 – Bakkies Botha, Victor Matfield, John Smit, Jean de Villiers, Jacques Fourie – were all big, uncompromising guys.
“Even though I got a concussion and ran off, I look back on it fondly. It was great Lions rugby. Yes, it would have been better if we had won or drawn. But we were a close group and there were no passengers. It was probably my favourite tour.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments