Brian O'Driscoll believes that Tadhg Beirne's reaction to being hit with a shoulder by Edinburgh prop Pierre Schoeman during Munster's Champions Cup quarter-final at the weekend 'isn't a good look' for the game of rugby.
With just over ten minutes to play on Saturday afternoon, and Munster trailing 13-10, referee Pascal Gauzere reversed a penalty against Munster due to the shoulder by Schoeman. Tyler Bleyendaal kicked the ball down the line with Keith Earls eventually scoring off the resulting lineout.
"If he's your team-mate, you go 'thanks for milking us the penalty' and if you are looking from outside you go 'come on, get up' and in the words of Nigel Owens, 'this isn't soccer, lads'," said O'Driscoll on Monday evening's Off The Ball.
I've seen some stuff on social media and people are not happy with the manner he threw himself to the ground. There was no doubt he gets impacted but it's a big sell. The dramatics of the fall is definitely what caught the TMO's eye.
Ultimately it probably is a penalty but I don't think you have to sell it that way. I don't think it's a good look for our game.
O'Driscoll added that Munster will have to "up their game considerably" in the semi-final if they are to beat a Saracens team he considers to be tournament favourites.
The former Ireland captain also addressed the serious knee injury which Dan Leavy suffered during Leinster's win against Ulster. Leinster confirmed on Monday that it will keep Leavy out for the remainder of the season and that the backrow will also miss the World Cup. The fear, according to O'Driscoll, is that it could keep him out for even longer.
"You did get the sense with Dan Leavy that we were just waiting for him to get back to full fitness and he would be the starter for Ireland come World Cup time," said O'Driscoll.
"It is a sickening, sickening blow for him.
"I could see immediately when he got caught that he put his hands up to his face that it was a bad one.
"The guy who calls back the footage [on BT Sport] was showing it beside me and I couldn't watch it. I saw it to the point of where the force came against him, and at that point it was nasty. My thoughts are with him - it sounds like a horrendous injury.
"The concern is that it's not just his World Cup potentially gone. When you're talking about that complicated an injury that early on after the incident, potentially there are bigger ramifications about how serious an injury it could be. I just hope that it is an injury that he can recover from as he has a lot of good years ahead of him."
Picture credit: Sportsfile
