With Ireland's long-awaited pivotal clash against France closing in an at a rate of knots, it was a pleasure to have Off The Ball guest presenter and former Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll on tonight's show to impart some of his insights and anecdotes.
One anecdote dates back to the draw for this year's World Cup pool stages which ultimately pitted us against France.
"I was part of the draw nearly three years ago, knowing that I wouldn't be part of this World Cup, and I remember being at it over in London and Declan Kidney was there with me and Thierry Dusautoir was the [France] captain. I remember walking out of the draw and Thierry Dusautoir was like a Cheshire cat," Brian reminisced.
"He thought all his Christmases had come at once when he realised he had drawn Italy, Ireland, Europe 1 and America 2. He just thought this was a dream ticket and then subsequent to that, we've had two draws against France and they've had two losses to us so the tide's turned slightly."
Brian also touched on the experience from the disappointing 2007 World Cup showing and feels there is no comparison to the current Irish team.
"There's no comparisons. It's eight years ago. It's a part of Irish history that we're trying to put behind us and we will only do that by getting to somewhere where we've never been before which is a semi-final. And then only at that point can we possibly truly shelve the debacle of Bordeaux," he said.
And don't forget Brian will be joined by Keith Wood, Felipe Contepomi and many more guests at Dublin's 3 Arena for our massive Off The Ball Roadshow on Wednesday.
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