{"id":11219,"date":"2012-06-07T23:01:29","date_gmt":"2012-06-07T21:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/06\/rugby-odriscoll-champing-at-bit-to-play-all-blacks-again\/"},"modified":"2012-06-07T23:01:29","modified_gmt":"2012-06-07T21:01:29","slug":"rugby-odriscoll-champing-at-bit-to-play-all-blacks-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-odriscoll-champing-at-bit-to-play-all-blacks-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-O’Driscoll champing at bit to play All Blacks again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Greg Stutchbury<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

AUCKLAND, June 8<\/span> (Reuters) – Brian O’Driscoll’s enforced
\nlayoff after the rugby World Cup has reinvigorated the Ireland
\ncaptain and he is not ready to call time on his career just yet.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The 33-year-old missed the entire Six Nations after a
\npinched nerve in his neck was giving him what a team official
\ncalled a “permanent stinger” in his shoulder and arm and he had
\nto undergo surgery.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“The five months I had off from the World Cup have done me
\ngood,” O’Driscoll told reporters after he was named to lead his
\nside out for his 118th Ireland test against the world champion
\nAll Blacks on Saturday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“They’ve freshened me up and allowed all the ailments to
\nease and have given me a hunger to get back playing (for
\nIreland). The last time was during the World Cup and that seems
\nlike an eternity ago.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

When not injured, O’Driscoll is careful to manage his
\nworkload with his province Leinster in order to prolong his
\nplaying career, at least until after the British and Irish Lions
\ntour of Australia next year.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

O’Driscoll said he had learned from 37-year-old former All
\nBlacks lock Brad Thorn, who joined Leinster on a short-term
\ncontract and helped them to the European Cup last month after a
\nperiod of about 15 months of non-stop rugby.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“People are always in a rush to retire you when you get to a
\ncertain age,” O’Driscoll added when asked if this was his last
\ntour of New Zealand.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I’m 33 now, but … the body feels good at the minute …
\nand one thing I did learn from Brad Thorn was if you’re
\nlistening to your body and you feel good then go with that.”
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Greg Stutchbury AUCKLAND, June 8 (Reuters) – Brian O’Driscoll’s enforced layoff after the rugby World Cup has reinvigorated the Ireland captain and he is not ready to call time on his career just yet. The 33-year-old missed the entire Six Nations after a pinched nerve in his neck was giving him what a team […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-11219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}