Brian O’Driscoll: ‘This Lions tour is my last big moment in rugby’

London: Brian O’Driscoll is in a droll mood. The serious business of the Lions tour of Australia begins with the first Test on Saturday, alongside a more evocative sense that the northern hemisphere’s finest rugby player is approaching the end by returning to the country where his extraordinary career really began.

The poignant certainty that nothing lasts forever is intensified when it assumes the shape of an intelligent sportsman readying himself for one last defiant tilt at greatness.

Yet O’Driscoll underplays the gravitas of these final and often wounded days. “I’m kept going. They’re holding me together just fine.”

He laughs softly, seemingly sure that the back spasm which nearly ruined the end of his domestic season will not affect him against the Wallabies as he strives to secure the series victory that has eluded him with the Lions.

O’Driscoll points out that we have an hour before his back gets kneaded and tended to again, and so there is plenty of time to enjoy his reflections and anticipation. The fact that he’s just decided to play on for another season has also diluted the scrutiny that could have engulfed him.

And so O’Driscoll amuses me with a story of how he found out that he had been selected for this tour. Before he led the Lions in New Zealand in 2005, when he was badly injured by a spear-tackle in the opening minutes of the first Test, O’Driscoll was told privately of his appointment. This time, like everyone besides Sam Warburton, the new captain, he waited for the official announcement on television.

“The only problem was that, with so much going on at home, I had my Sky Plus paused by a minute. I’d just reached the moment when the full-backs’ names were read out and [O’Driscoll pauses dramatically] I got a text from my sister. It said: ‘Get in!’ All I could see on the telly was Stuart Hogg [the Scottish fullback].” O’Driscoll sighs wryly. “So Sky Plus isn’t always a plus.”

Yet it does not take long for O’Driscoll to articulate the private meaning of this tour for him. “It’s probably the last big thing I want to be involved in,” he says. “I’m definitely not going to be involved in the next World Cup. So this is my last big moment in rugby.”

Paul O’Connell, another great Irishman and former Lions captain on his final tour, was equally thoughtful when we met last month. The lock admitted with a wince that he had been forced to concede that past players like Lawrence Dallaglio, Keith Wood, Jeremy Guscott and Matt Dawson could present themselves as “custodians of the Lions”. Neither O’Driscoll nor O’Connell can challenge their status for, unlike the 1997 Lions, they have yet to taste a series victory in the red jersey.

“It’s true,” O’Driscoll says simply. “Matt Dawson made contact, congratulating me, and I said ‘Yeah, it’s probably about time I won one of these — I’ve certainly had enough cracks at it.’ Until you win a series it’s difficult to place yourself in that elite group of great Lions players. It’s not enough to produce one-off performances or be nearly men.

“You’ve got to win a series to be properly remembered. I’ve talked to Matt about that dummy over-the-head pass that secured the [first Test] win in South Africa. How many times have people spoken to Scott Gibbs about his big hit on Os Du Randt? These moments are timeless — but they’re only timeless because of the victory that followed. To be considered a great and a custodian of Lions rugby, you have to achieve that success. So here comes another opportunity to join that elite group.”

The idea that O’Driscoll should be considered a lesser Lion than even a fine player like Dawson seems an affront to good sense. But a winning series for the Lions happens far less often than noble defeat. O’Driscoll knows that his iconic sheen would be pegged down for generations if he could rise up one last time and inspire victory over the Wallabies.

He has already given us one of those “moments” which he cherishes. It might only have led to a first Test win against Australia, in a narrow series loss, but the brilliance of O’Driscoll’s try in 2001 refuses to fade.

Starting in his own half he slashed open the Australian defence, as if using a magisterial cleaver which left Nathan Grey and George Smith for dead, before an outrageous step took him clear of Matt Burke.

“There’s ego in all of us rugby players,” O’Driscoll says, “and I’ve looked at the odd montage of myself and seen that try. I have a wry smile to myself. It was one of the good ones because Australia were renowned for their impenetrable defence. I just got out of Matt Burke’s way before he killed me. But I think more about the fact that we lost that series. It was even closer than South Africa in 2009. We should have won the second Test and the series. We carved them open but didn’t finish the job.” Australia features large in O’Driscoll’s story, for he made his Test debut in Brisbane in 1999. It was the first of his 131 Test appearances — 125 for Ireland and six for the Lions, which means that only George Gregan, the former Wallaby, has played more international rugby.

O’Driscoll’s first two Lions tours, under Graham Henry and Clive Woodward, were blighted by managerial mistakes. He is unequivocal when asked if the 2009 Lions, coached by Ian McGeechan, were the happiest of his three squads.

“Without a shadow of a doubt. It was the most enjoyable for sure. But I love Australia as a country and enjoy touring there most. In 2001 we probably trained too hard and that caught up with us in the end. But we had such a harmonious and tight bond in 2009.”

He yearns to be part of a winning series and O’Driscoll’s hopes are clear when he considers the merits of his fourth Lions squad. “We’ve got great balance and the competition in the back row, centre, halfback and front row proves our quality. The Australians came out with these quotes about ‘slabs of meat’. But they’re going to be unpleasantly shocked by the calibre and range of our skills.”

Does the great old warrior believe that, at last, he will be part of a victorious tour? “Absolutely. I absolutely do,” he says in a resounding echo, sounding more than ever like a true custodian of the Lions.

— Guardian News & Media Ltd