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The 'worm burner' that put an end to Brian O'Driscoll goal-kicking
By Liam Heagney
Brian O’Driscoll has recalled the shanked kick that put an end to his attempt to be a professional level goal-kicker. The legendary Ireland and British and Irish Lions midfielder has become a very entertaining pundit in recent years, often revealing stories from his career where he has a hearty chuckle at himself.
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How he quit kicking off the tee is another yarn that can now be filed under this amusing category. Appearing on an Off The Ball podcast, the retired 45-year-old jogged his mind back to September 1999 when he was helping Leinster out with their place-kicking in an interprovincial match versus Connacht.
O’Driscoll has burst on the international scene a few months earlier when handed his debut caps for Ireland by Warren Gatland at the age of 20 on a tour to Australia. A kicker at age-grade level, he scored some points off the tee on his trip with the national team in a couple of their warm-up matches, but he wasn’t long in calling it quits after an embarrassing effort in Donnybrook.
Asked to recall his brief involvement as a kicker, O’Driscoll explained: “I did a bit of goal-kicking back in those days… but I am really glad I gave it up. The time and effort and energy that goes into that would have taken away from other aspect of your game.
“I do remember one time that I had a nail that was about to come off and I had a word to the doc. ‘It’s going to come off and it’s sore.’ It came off halfway through the game and I had to get an anaesthetic into my toe to numb the pain to play the second half.
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Brian O'Driscoll sat down with Eoin to discuss the start of the new URC season, why he never made it as a goalkicker, and more…
Rugby on OTB with @bankofireland | Never Stop Competing
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— Off The Ball (@offtheball) September 26, 2024
“I used to take the long-range kicks because Girvan Dempsey was goal-kicking and within a minute (of the second half starting), one came up just inside the halfway line and I said, ‘I’ll have a pop at this… from 48 yards out’. It didn’t get more than two feet off the ground, literally worm burner. That might have been the last kick that I ever kicked for Leinster.
“I wasn’t thinking anything about the fact that I couldn’t feel my foot through my toe. I didn’t think anything. ‘I feel amazing here. I can feel this.’ I obviously couldn’t feel it quite as well as I thought I could.”
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Explaining his background as a kicker before that seminal mishap with Leinster, he added: “I used to do a little bit of goal-kicking with Ireland on the tour in ’99 when I got my first cap, not in the Test matches but I kicked one or two goals in the warm-up games.
“I was a goal-kicker when I was in school and U19s but not a particularly good one. I was fine but it was something that I don’t look back and think I regret not keeping that up.”
