Rugby star Brian O'Driscoll opens up about the stress he felt becoming Ireland captain at just 23

The rugby legend opened up about making mistakes in the spotlight, losing sleep and the most stressful and difficult parts of captaining such a successful team at such a young age

Brian O'Driscoll has revealed that becoming Leinster and Ireland captain at such a young age caused him some stress and anxiety due to the pressure and demands of the role.

The Dublin native, now retired from the game but working as a rugby analyst, captained Ireland from 2003 until 2012. He also captained the British & Irish Lions in New Zealand in 2005.

A rugby legend, he did not let the pressure get the best of him at the time, but reflected on the difficulties he experienced.

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Speaking to Ryan Tubridy on his podcast The Bookshelf with Ryan Tubridy, he said he was frightened by some aspects of the job.

"You don’t know what person you’d become if I didn’t go the career I’d went with. Being pushed into the spotlight at a very young age, particularly after scoring the hat-trick against France and very quickly becoming captain way before my time as a 23-year-old."

‘You’re really thrown out into the open and have a lot of learning to do. You make mistakes, you have yellow hair for a couple of years and you do some silly stuff.

"You’re living your mistakes in the public domain. I’ll always look at those young guys coming through now, you’re meant to do that stuff. Let them be, you’re trying to find out who you are and what personality traits you have," he said.

Touching on the parts of the job that stressed him put, he said: "Whatever about events or dinners, talking to teammates."

"We used to have the captain’s meeting the night before a test match. I can’t tell you the amount of sleep I lost trying to come up with ten minutes of conversational chat for my peers."

"It was about motivating them about what we were going to do the following day… this was my thoughts they were waiting to hear. Some of the hardest parts of the captaincy."

"You find a way, navigate a path that works for you. Have the odd person talk on my behalf and write my points on an A5 page beside me so all the eyeballs were off me and on the notes," he said.

"You’re out of your comfort zone. I’m happy to do that on the field, that was a natural instinct to go follow me. In this contrived environment you’re like 'oh my goodness, this feels alien.'"

The star has been married since 2010 to writer and actor Amy Huberman. The couple have three children, but tend to keep their kids out of the spotlight.

However, he touched on how he would have loved for his kids to have been that bit older so they could have been a bigger part of his career.

"A little bit of me thinks it's a shame that they weren't old enough to enjoy even a couple of years. You look at someone like Johnny Sexton who's had so much joy with his children - and a bit of heartache as well.

"And a little bit of you thinks 'Umm, that would've been nice."

"I don't think my son's ever watched a YouTube clip of me in his life. It's Messi and Ronaldo!" he joked.

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