Rugby doesn’t have the concept of the street footballer but it ought to be coined for Ireland's Brian O’Driscoll, with all that says about a fighter’s heart and a winner’s mind. Denis Walsh writes in the Sunday Times.
"O’Driscoll’s tolerance for punishment has been an extraordinary feature of his career. Last season, England roughed him up in Croke Park with some late hits, two of them in the space of five minutes, one on the sternum, one on the temple. After the blow to the head he had what he described later as a “piercing, splitting headache”, and the Irish medical staff considered pulling him ashore. But with this commotion going on inside his skull he scored the match-winning try through a ruck of bodies, diving under Julian White and Nick Kennedy, two massive English forwards.
"Such episodes of courage and defiance have defined O’Driscoll’s career. The tries and moments of intuitive brilliance with the ball in hand have colonised the highlights reels but the essence of him as a player is much greater than that. [Phil] Larder puts it well: “What sets him apart is what he has between the ears. The mental toughness. He is what I would call a warrior. He puts his body on the line all the time and that inspires others to follow him. I would say it’s not very often that his body is 100% going onto the field.”
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