Brian O'Driscoll says the only way Ireland could ever match New Zealand in rugby would be to ditch gaelic football.

Reacting to criticism of Joe Schmidt's side during the course of their disappointing Six Nations campaign, oval ball legend O'Driscoll points out that it is a remarkable achievement for a small country where rugby is the fourth most popular sport to be rubbing shoulders with the big boys:

"We are a nation of 5-6 million and it's our fourth-choice sport and yet, we're fourth in the world. God knows what the playing numbers are in England, in New Zealand," he told Newstalk. "For us to be a top seed in a pool for the world cup is absolutely monumental.

"It's an inadvertent compliment, the stick, and you've got to look at it that way but it's hard to. It absolutely is. Now, no form of mediocre performance is acceptable.

"Are we ever going to be the consistent level of New Zealand? No, we're not. I just don't think we are because I don't think we have the ground work done in our players and I don't think we have the depth of players or the player numbers to be able to facilitate that level of competition, to drive the standards that high.

"Unless we decide to give up other sports, particularly gaelic football, and pool all those resources into rugby, I don't think we can get to that point. We love it but we're not obsessed by rugby.""

Tweet

Most Read Stories