Rugby Betting: O'Driscoll recovers sharpness but great-value Wasps could sting

Heineken Cup / Ralph Ellis / 15 October 2008 / Leave a Comment

The former-British Lions captain is back to his best and that's why punters are backing his side to compound Wasps' woes on Saturday. But if anyone can put a stop to Leinster's run it's the London side, says Ralph Ellis.

Train hard, play hard, is the old adage. But like many old sayings it's not necessarily true.

I can remember as a young local paper reporter talking to a frustrated Terry Cooper when he was taking his first steps as a manager. After a particularly poor home defeat he was given a lecture from his chairman about how he should have the players back in for extra running every day that week. "He's an expert in air conditioning, that's how he made his money, but he knows nothing about physical conditioning," grumbled the man who was arguably England's best ever left back and part of Don Revie's great Leeds side of the 70s. "I want their legs on a match day, not left on the training ground."

I thought of TC when I read Brian O'Driscoll's account of how he's recovered his old sharpness at a time when the rugby world was ready to write him off. "I'm realising there are certain sessions I should sit out and certain times where I don't work as hard as I did. There's no point in training like Tarzan and playing like Jane".

It's a nice quote, and O'Driscoll looked back to his best as Leinster opened their Heineken Cup campaign with an easy win at Murrayfield last weekend, but the match that decides Pool 2 will come this Saturday when the Magners League champions face Wasps. With an unbeaten home European run that now stretches to eight games, most punters are supporting the The Irish side who are [1.71] favourite to top the group and as short as [1.4] to inflict more misery on Wasps stuttering start to the season.

O'Driscoll reckons his team are learning how to pace themselves across the season and adjust to the different levels required when they step away from their domestic environment for the big European matches. "You have to target certain periods. There are games in the Magners League where you can coast through at 60 or 70 per cent and not go as hard as in the European Cup or internationals. It is a way of life for someone who is nearly 30."

Now that sounds fine, and no doubt TC would approve, but it does suggest Wasps have far more chance of putting their season back on track than the current betting suggests. Their training has been intense - witness the bust-up between Josh Lewsey and rugby's pin-up boy Danny Cipriani. And sometimes it takes a moment like that to clear the air when results aren't right, and the comfortable win over Castres that launched the London club's Heineken Cup campaign suggests a corner could have been turned.

O'Driscoll is offering another clue. In an interview that's meant to be positive he confesses: "Our hang-up is not about playing a Premiership side, it's about our level of consistency and that has been our downfall in the past." If anybody can take advantage it's the multi-talented Wasps side, and they are great value to win in Ireland at [2.52].

Five things you might not know about Brian O'Driscoll

1. Born in Clontarf on Dublin's Northside, his Irish name is Brian
Gearóid Ó hEidirsceoil

2. He won the first of his 85 Test caps for Ireland at age 20 against Australia in Brisbane

3. He's sponsored by Gillette but admits he's never been hairy enough to grow a beard so doesn't really need too many razor blades!

4. He claims not to be superstitious, but when he captains a side likes to run out third from last

5. He says he won't go into coaching when he hangs up his boots. "Of my five pals from home I've missed five weddings and I want some time away from the game to enjoy life."