Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: Brian O'Driscoll's record breaking 25 Championship tries

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Brian O'Driscoll's record breaking 25 Championship tries

A week ago England won the Six Nations Championship, despite a loss to Ireland in Dublin. The highlight of the game though, aside from the convincing Irish win, was Brian O’Driscoll’s breaking of a record that has stood for over 70 years.

Despite having a relatively poor tournament, Ireland finished on a high as they stopped England from picking up the much sought after Six Nations Grand Slam. For O’Driscoll, it was a day of personal triumph as the win was capped off with a historic 25th try for his country in the competition, surpassing Ian Smith's record that was set between 1924 and 1933.

"I didn't know Ian Smith myself! But 78 years is a very long time for a record to stand. It's great and a real honour, said O’Driscoll. "Individual accolades are what you think about when your career is finished, but I hope I have a bit left me in so I won't dwell on it."

The following video isn’t in the best quality possible unfortunately, but it’s still worth having a look at as it covers each one of the 25 tries the great centre has scored since making his international debut for Ireland back in 2000.

A brilliant achievement, big congratulations go out to the great man and it's good to hear that he may be back again next year, hoping to extend that record even further.

Time: 04:46

breaking the six nations try record is a massive achievement. but i have to say being THE FIRST POSTER CANNOT BE HELD IN ANY HIGHER REGARD! YESSS FIRSSSSTTT!!!

By Anonymous, at March 26, 2011 7:46 pm
Props to BOD great quality and consistency :D

cheers from argentina

By Anonymous, at March 26, 2011 7:48 pm
His try for the Lions v Australia is one of my favourites.

By Anonymous, at March 26, 2011 7:55 pm
Great work...Him and keith Wood, without a doubt Ire;and's greatest ever players...And to break that try scoring record is a huge personal achievement and it is nothing more than he deserves...

I'm sure he'd trade it in, along with any other record for the Webb Ellis next Autumn though

By themull, at March 26, 2011 8:15 pm
Best thing for me was that in all 25 you saw not 1 swan dive.

By Anonymous, at March 26, 2011 8:45 pm
themull,

There'd be a doubt were you to include the amateur era - Mike Gibson for one.

By Snake, at March 26, 2011 9:00 pm
absolutely brilliant player. It'll be a sad day when he packs in his boots.

By Anonymous, at March 26, 2011 9:24 pm
I think the worst piece of luck that BOD had was that his parents did skip off to the SH before he was born - he'd probably have won a WC or two by now.

The thing about this guy is that, as I've stated elsewhere, try scoring isn't even the main part of his game. His defence (organisational, and tackling) is better, his ball-winning on the ground has always been first-class, like an extra 7, and his greatest gift is probably putting other players into space - for example he made Jamie Roberts look like a great player during the Lions tour in SA.

It's a pity that SH fans usually see him playing on losing teams, as the Lions and Ireland combined lose 80% or more of their SH tour games. No wonder they think he is over-rated.

By Mike, at March 26, 2011 9:25 pm
In fairness,eventhough Drico is an absolute legend i think its a bit harsh on Jamie Roberts to suggest that he was getting put into space by O'Driscoll considering he was playing inside BOD.

And the SH viewers should at this stage have seen a fair few of his Irish tries considering hes scored 4 against Aus, 3 against NZ and 1 against SH......ontop of all those hes scored more against these 3 for the lions (and prob even more again if he hadnt been taken out of the NZ series).

By Anonymous, at March 26, 2011 9:47 pm
Ach, I'd say he's past it.

Joking aside I've never found rugby people (real people that is) in the SH to have anything other than massive respect for Brian O'Driscoll, and that applies to NZ, AUS and SA.

He's just exceptional - unbelievable high standard to have maintained throughout his career. Massive, massive thanks to him as an Irish rugby fan.

By Eoghan Cole, at March 26, 2011 9:58 pm
Im somewhat inclined to agree with the above...

A lot of NH and SH comments on here are generally made by trolls who have no real appreciation for the game, or just like to wind people up..

But most rugby fans who actually enjoy the game can recognise skill no matter who has it!

Im an England supporter (through the 6N the world cups etc) but I am not blind to the fact the team we have right now is not on par with many others (partly because they are so young and lack the few key cornerstones) but I can definately recognise that BOD would be in my world XV...

Actually in my world XV BOD and Umaga would both have the 13 shirt (instead of 12 and 13) and they'd mix it up in the centre as and when!

By Sam, at March 26, 2011 10:16 pm
He is not only without doubt the greatest Irish rugby player ever produced, I'd go so far as to say the greatest Irish sports player ever produced.

Since his career has started he has remained the top center in northern hemisphere(and arguably world) rugby and has won just about every honour around him bar the Web Ellis (yet!).

And that's from a Munster fan!

By Anonymous, at March 27, 2011 1:22 am
Possibly my favorite athlete, never takes himself too seriously, plays with ridiculous passion, humble and willing to admit error.

My favorite try by him was with Leinster when he beat earls, devilliers and outran howlett to the line. Beat A lion, a springbok n an allblack on one play.

Best centre ever

By Canadian content, at March 27, 2011 5:00 am
without a doubt the best no13 that ever played the game

By Anonymous, at March 27, 2011 7:44 am
without a doubt the best no13 that ever played the game

By Anonymous, at March 27, 2011 7:45 am
Any other player who scores tries in 4 out 5 games in a 6nations would have been given player of the tournament, but we've come to accept the extraordinary as ordinary for O'Driscoll, the fact that this was his 10th 6ns makes it all the more special.

Great Rugby brain which shows in every area of his game. I hope for future generations that he makes as good a coach as he is a player...too much to ask for?

By I hate ppl who write "First!", at March 27, 2011 11:04 am
Without trying to sound like a school girl, my heart skips a beat when i see the 13 shirt on him.

Sad day when he retires, hopefully another year or two in the tank, nonetheless whenever he retires he'll leave with a record that'll stand proud for generations

By BrennansBread, at March 27, 2011 11:35 am
he should be the irb player of the year in 2009, not mccaw, i do respect mccaw a lot. but that year BOD won every competition with his teams. ireland won the 6s, leinster the HC

By Little Chief, at March 27, 2011 12:03 pm
A great player, puncher and champion
pity, that he will may never win a WC

who are the following 6N try scorers still in activity?
Clerc or S.Williams must not be far

By Colombes, at March 27, 2011 3:03 pm
Absolute legend... respect for the opponent, hard work, talent, leadership, generosity with team mates... This guy should have been named Brian O'Rugby

By Juggernauter, at March 27, 2011 4:28 pm
The thing about O'Driscoll is that he is superbly balanced as a player. No big deficiencies. Nobody does so many things well.

By HVS, at March 27, 2011 4:49 pm
I just love watching the guy play. He loves the game... He isn't out to impose himself on others because he can out play them.. Always has a smile and is generally a great player to watch!

By No.7, at March 27, 2011 5:13 pm
Colombes said
who are the following 6N try scorers still in activity?
Clerc or S.Williams must not be far

Williams is on 22 but has played his last 6N as he's retiring after WC. Considering Clerc seems to score an ass load I don't think he's near 20 and doesn't have too long left either. I believe this record might stand for a while. Not 78 years, but, Chris Ashton aside, no current player looks remotely like coming near.

Talk of Ashton too, he scored 6 tries in 2 games. It looks good, but I'd rather a player scored 6 tries in 6 games. BOD hasn't scored more than 1 try a game since the Wales 04 game and all have been important. He also doesn't seem to score (bar the odd game) when Ireland win by 15 or more making them more important.

By Anonymous, at March 27, 2011 6:19 pm
Yeah I agree

Everyone talks about Ashton being this new superstar, but take the Italy game out of it and his record looks average enough. I mean, Girvan Dempsey scored 4 v italy and you wouldn't call him a superstar.

Ashton minus Italy

played 11, scored 5.
Australia 1 and 2, and Wales 2.

By FAfaFAfAAA, at March 27, 2011 6:26 pm
Great player, great mentality.

Well done to him and what a pleasure to see this guys playing!!!!!

I wish we could see him playing in the Top 14 for 2 years but on the other hands, playing for Leinster is sure not so bad :-)

By Flipje, at March 27, 2011 8:18 pm
"Best thing for me was that in all 25 you saw not 1 swan dive."

Agree.

By fry, at March 27, 2011 8:53 pm
Great player forever!!! Bravo Brian!! Romania te admira! Salute.

By Unknown, at March 28, 2011 1:17 am
Brian O'Driscoll predates the Euro, George Bush's presidency, 9/11, war in Iraq, the iPod, Myspace, Bebo, Facebook, Twitter, the Strokes, the White Stripes, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, The Lord of the Rings & the Harry Potter films, Pop Idol, the X Factor, the end of Friends, CSI, capitalism collapsed and China became the worlds second biggest economy but O'Driscoll is still scoring.

By selldomvideomaker, at March 28, 2011 1:32 pm
I disagree i believe tommy bowe looks just as likely to reach that record than ashton

By ciaran, at March 28, 2011 3:18 pm
25 superb tries hes not the biggest or the quickest which for me makes him one of the best players ever to walk the planet, a truely incredable human. just how he manages to score some of the tries he scores is beyond me. cant say a bad word about him (apart from when scores against england)

By Anonymous, at March 28, 2011 5:59 pm
Actually aguilera's genie in a bottle debuted in 1999, bod's 1st big year.

I know cuz I was living in Italy at the time n they played it every second song!

By Canadian content, at March 29, 2011 1:39 am
Jesus there is some crap on here.

Congrats on the 25 tries you fat overrated drama queen, do something against a real team and then the South will be impressed.

You'll forever be known as the sook who went on national TV asking for an apology adter being cleared out of a ruck.

My local club has the BOD or "Bitch of the day award" for the worst missed tackle during a game.

By Anonymous, at March 29, 2011 6:39 am
@"do something against a real team"

4 tries against australia, 3 against england, 8 against france, 3 against new zealand, 1 against south africa

By Anonymous, at March 29, 2011 2:33 pm
The truly amazing thing is he's a fuckin centre, usually the guys who rack up the try count are back 3 players.

He's the highest scoring centre in the History of the game and is currently 8th on the all time list with 45 tries but I reckon by the time he retires he'll be 4th, the only other centre close to him on the list is Umaga but he started out on the wing.

He's simply the best centre in rugby union history, stats don't lie.

By Anonymous, at March 30, 2011 3:31 am
Yeah, good point about where the top try-scorers come from. If you look at the list of the top 20 try scorers of all time, only BOD, Umaga and van der Westhuizen are not back 3 players, and Umaga played on the wing earlier in his career. By the time he finishes he probably will be 5th, or 6th behind Howlett. Amazing stats for a centre, and when you consider that try-scoring is a secondary part of his game...wow.

By Anonymous, at March 30, 2011 4:05 pm
Congrats on the 25 tries you fat overrated drama queen, do something against a real team and then the South will be impressed.

You'll forever be known as the sook who went on national TV asking for an apology adter being cleared out of a ruck.

My local club has the BOD or "Bitch of the day award" for the worst missed tackle during a game.

Congrats mate today you win "Bitch of the Day" for that lovely moan. And he already "did something", a hat trick against "a real team" France... who like to knock All Blacks out of World Cups. :)

By WelshWizards, at March 30, 2011 6:58 pm
fav BOD moment; Leinster match against a french team (Agen?) in Dublin.
He's obviously gotten a bit of an upset stomach, as he's puked on the pitch a couple of times. So for a breather, he goes onto the wing.

He scores 4 tries.

Imagine if he was a winger in those early days - how many tries would he have racked up.

His endurance, his versatility, the way he developed and adapted his game over the years - all to be held in the highest regard.

These days, it just seems so hard for attackers to get past him. Leinster and Irl don't leak many tries through midfield - esp clear when u'r at a match and watching- he just marshalls the area so well (TV doesn't pick it up as well)

He did have a wee blip in form for about 12-18 months around 07, when his hamstring kept poppin, but he lost weight, changed his game, and came back brilliantly.

Like th eway he pulled back from all that Beckham-style stuff that was starting to happen to him around then to. Good move.

All told, a model player - and all at just 5ft 9/10!

By mise, at March 30, 2011 11:44 pm