MUNSTER stalwart Mick O’Driscoll announced his retirement from rugby this week.
The 33 year old, who made his debut in August 1998, played his 204th competitive game against Glasgow Warriors on Saturday. The Cork native will be fondly remembered as the man who lead Munster season after season when the internationals were unavailable.
Paul O’Connell commented this week that; “In recent years when we won Magners Leagues, a lot of it has been to do with Micko’s running of the team when the internationals were away.”
O’Driscoll himself is looking for a clean break from rugby after 14 seasons in the professional game. Two of which were spent at Perpignan in the Top14.
It has been a tough decision. I have really enjoyed my career, but now is the right time to move on. This is a clean break from rugby. I have a couple of different opportunities in business, which I will hopefully explore in the next couple of months.”
O’Driscoll is included in this weekend’s squad for the must win away game against the Scarlets. Munster will once more be without Ronan O’Gara who is struggling with a dead leg, while loose head prop Dave Kilcoyne is expected to make a start against the Welsh region having impressed hugely in recent games for his club UL Bohemians and for Munster ‘A’ Kick off on Saturday is at 18.30.
