Vicious abuse drove me to new heights
DAVIES LIFTS THE LID ON O’DRISCOLL LIONS STORM
BRIAN O’DRISCOLL and Jonathan Davies have lifted the lid on one of the most controversial selection calls in rugby history to mark a year until the British and Irish Lions go back on tour.
It is seven years ago today since Warren Gatland’s Lions hammered Australia in Sydney to win the 2013 series and vindicate the head coach’s decision to pick Davies ahead of O’Driscoll when Jamie Roberts’ return from injury forced a midfield reshuffle.
Gatland said in the immediate aftermath of the Lions’ 41-16 triumph that he was in no mood to celebrate so “absolutely shocked” was he by the “vitriolic” abuse aimed at him.
O’Driscoll and Davies, pictured above with Gethin Jenkins, said little about the incident at the time. But Wales centre Davies has now revealed:
“It was something I probably used as a motivating factor. I was like ‘I’ll prove you wrong’, I’m going to do the best I can to make sure we win the series.
“Gats asked me on the Friday, ‘How’s it been?’ I said, ‘Well… yeah… OK.’ He was like ‘Yeah, I know exactly! Make sure we win and we’ll be OK’.”
The Lions did win to claim their first series since 1997, but not before social media had gone into meltdown over Gatland’s decision to axe the legendary O’Driscoll for the only time in his illustrious career.
It would have been the Irishman’s final Lions appearance and he was expected to be captain in the injured Sam Warburton’s absence. O’Driscoll said: “I got a tap on the shoulder and saw Gats and [attack coach] Rob Howley. I thought this isn’t good. You don’t need two people for good news.”
He remembers his emotions well but he has discovered, as part of BT Sport series Lions Call, what it was like for Davies, who told O’Driscoll: “I thought it would go pretty wild, the reaction back home and I geared myself up for it. I didn’t expect to be selected.
“Initially that was the shock. I remember getting on the bus and telling myself ‘Right, you’ve got to knuckle down this week, even more so’.
“To be fair to you, you walked past me on the bus, shook my hand and congratulated me. After that it was probably more the social media stuff. The little circus.
“You get tweeted stuff and you’re just like ‘wow’. I took it with a pinch of salt. I remember speaking to my brother on FaceTime. He was laughing at it, reading tweets back to me. I was like ‘I’ve already read them, I don’t need this any more!’” Davies later joked that even his parents made him walk in front of them as “they didn’t want to be seen with me!”
He said: “Warren was public enemy No1 and I was No2.” But the ends did justify the means.
I thought it would go pretty wild