John O'Driscoll (born 26 November 1953) is an Irish former rugby union player. [1] He was educated at Stonyhurst College and is a former Ireland international rugby union player winning 26 caps. He toured South Africa in 1980 and New Zealand in 1983 with the British and Irish Lions and at the time played club rugby for London Irish. O'Driscoll captained the London Irish team that reached the final of the 1980 John Player Cup.
Stonyhurst College is a coeducational Roman Catholic independent school, adhering to the Jesuit tradition, on the Stonyhurst Estate, Lancashire, England. It occupies a Grade I listed building. The school has been fully co-educational since 1999.
The Ireland national rugby union team represents the island of Ireland in rugby union. They are ranked third in the world by World Rugby as of 18 March 2019. The team competes annually in the current Six Nations Championship, which they have won fourteen times outright and shared nine times in its various formats. The team also competes every four years in the Rugby World Cup, where they reached the quarter-final stage in all but two competitions. Ireland is also one of the four unions that make up the British and Irish Lions – players eligible to play for Ireland are also eligible for the Lions.
Rugby union, widely known simply as rugby, is a contact team sport which originated in England in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its most common form, a game is between two teams of 15 players using an oval-shaped ball on a rectangular field with H-shaped goalposts at each end.
He played for Connacht at Inter-Provincial level. His older brother Barry O'Driscoll was also capped for Ireland. Lions captain Brian O'Driscoll is nephew to the brothers. [2] The family is not related to Mick O'Driscoll, who also played rugby union for Ireland. [3]
Barry Joseph O'Driscoll is an Irish doctor and former rugby union international. He came from a rugby family - his brother John, cousin Frank and Frank's son Brian also all played rugby union for Ireland. The family is not related to Mick O'Driscoll, who also played rugby union for Ireland.
The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for any of the Home Nations – the national teams of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The Lions are a Test side and generally select international players, but they can pick uncapped players available to any one of the four unions. The team currently tours every four years, with these rotating among Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The most recent series, the 2017 series against New Zealand, was drawn 1-1.
Brian Gerard O'Driscoll is a retired Irish professional rugby union player. He played at outside centre for the Irish provincial team Leinster and for Ireland. He captained Ireland from 2003 until 2012, and captained the British and Irish Lions for their 2005 tour of New Zealand. He is regarded by critics as one of the greatest rugby players of all time.
