Michael Rowan O'Driscoll (born 8 October 1978) is an Irish former

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player. He played for

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

in the

Pro12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

and

Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Investec Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

, and played internationally for

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. He was an integral senior player for Munster and captained the province numerous times, particularly during the 2008–09 season.

Early life

O'Driscoll attended

Presentation Brothers College, Cork Presentation Brothers College (PBC Cork) (; colloquially known as Pres) is a Catholic, boys, private fee-paying secondary school in Cork (city), Cork, Ireland. As of 2020, Presentation Brothers College was ranked as the top boys secondary sc ...

and was in the same class as

Peter Stringer Peter Alexander Stringer (born 13 December 1977) is an Irish former rugby union player who played at scrum-half. He played 13 seasons with Irish province Munster from 1998 to 2011; he then played seven seasons from 2011 to 2018 in England wit ...

. He also won a schools rugby medal in 1996. He also played GAA at underage level with Éire Óg in Cork. His compatriot and former Leinster centre,

Brian O'Driscoll Brian Gerard O'Driscoll (born 21 January 1979) is an Irish former professional rugby union player. He played at outside Centre (rugby union), centre for the Irish provincial team Leinster Rugby, Leinster and for Ireland national rugby union te ...

, is no relation.

Munster

He made his Munster debut in 1998 against Neath. During his professional career, O'Driscoll has also played for

USA Perpignan Union Sportive Arlequins Perpignanais, also referred to as USA Perpignan or Perpignan, is a French professional rugby union club founded in 1933 and based in Perpignan, in the Pyrénées-Orientales department. They compete in the Top 14, France' ...

in France. Mostly a second-row in his time in Ireland, he often played in the back-row in France. He returned to Munster in 2005 and became an important member of the Munster squad. He won the Munster Player of the Year award for the 2009/10 season. O'Driscoll became the eighth Munster player to win 200 caps for the province on 3 March 2012, during a league game against Newport Gwent Dragons. It was announced on 17 April 2012 that O'Driscoll would be retiring from international and national rugby at the end of the 2011–12 season. His last game for the province was the away league play-off semi-final against

Ospreys The osprey (; ''Pandion haliaetus''), historically known as sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and a wingspan of . It is ...

on 11 May 2012, which Munster lost 45-10. It was announced on 10 April 2014 that O'Driscoll would be joining Munster's coaching staff from 1 July 2014 as a Technical Advisor. O'Driscoll will also be responsible for Munster A team.

Ireland

His international debut came as a replacement against

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

in 2001. O'Driscoll won 23 caps for Ireland, the last of which came against

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

in the

2011 Rugby World Cup The 2011 Rugby World Cup, was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The World Rugby, International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japa ...

warm-ups. He was a member of Ireland's 2009 Grand Slam winning team. He was selected in Ireland's 2011 World Cup training squad for the warm-up tests in August, but was not selected in the final 30-man squad for the World Cup and never played for his country again.

Statistics

International analysis by opposition

Correct as of 5 July 2017Mick O'Driscoll
''ESPN Scrum'', 5 July 2017

References

External links

Munster ProfileIreland ProfilePro14 Profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:ODriscoll, Mick 1978 births Living people Rugby union players from Cork (city) People educated at Presentation Brothers College, Cork Alumni of University College Cork Irish rugby union players Cork Constitution players University College Cork RFC players Munster Rugby players USA Perpignan players Munster Rugby captains Barbarian F.C. players Ireland Wolfhounds international rugby union players Ireland international rugby union players Rugby union locks Irish expatriate rugby union players in France