Brian bashes soccer no shows:

PROUD IRELAND INTERNATIONAL: talisman Brian O'Driscoll

"For me, it is the ultimate to put on your green jersey and I truly love it as you are representing the whole country, not just a certain section,"

Brian O'Driscoll checks into Ireland's pre World Cup trainig camp today with a word of warning for his rugby team-mates and a stinging rebuke for the Irish soccer players who shunned Giovanni Trapatoni's end of season games.
Returning to Ireland's failed 2007 World Cup campaign in France, the Six Nations all-time leading try scorer said that the team had been 'guilty of talking ourselves up way too much,' and he claimed that the soccer players who snubbed Trapatoni last month were 'not giving the jersey the respect [that it deserves].'
The Leinster star shot the breeze on a number of sporting issues in an informal but informative setting on the eve of commencement of Ireland's final pre-World Cup training camp with his own code and soccer high on the agenda.
 "We talked ourselves up way too much in the last World Cup and that has resulted in a more level headed approach going forward," - the skipper told www.irishcentral.com.
"Instead of having the attitude of: 'Yeah, we'll win it,' we're thinking: 'Let's get out of the Pool and then look to the quarter-final and take it from there.  We are far more consistent now and I think there is now real strenth-in-depth here as well."

TALKING CANDIDLY:  Ireland rugby icon Brian O'Driscoll

Ireland head-coach Declan Kidney welcomes a fully fit squad to Carton House in Co. Kildare, in direct contrast to the Ireland soccer squad, a number of whom shunned the opportunity to play in end-of-season European Champinship fixtures, something which O'Driscoll says disrespects the jersey.
"The guys who are turning down international call-ups are not giving the jersey the respect it deserves.  I don't think they should be considered for selection when the so-called more interesting games are there to be played and there to be won.
"For me, it is the ultimate to put on your green jersey and I truly love it as you are representing the whole country, not just a certain section.  Respect is a given for me when you are selected for your country.  It is such a huge honour.
"I have always paid into the belief that you are only ever borrowing the jersey.  You never own the jersey.  Someone has gone before you and someone will come after you, so it is a case of giving the jersey maximum respect"