In the wake of Ireland's defeat to Scotland in the opening game of the 2017 Six Nations, Ireland captain Rory Best has called for the media and fans to give promising Leinster centre Garry Ringrose a chance to carve his own career for himself, free of comparisons to the greatest ever Irish rugby player in Brian O'Driscoll.
The buzz around Ringrose had been building for the best part of two years before the UCD man made his debut in November, and due to his exciting running rugby at the 13 position, the comparisons to O'Driscoll were inevitable, but now that he is a key figure in Joe Schmidt's plans, Best wants to see an end to the comparisons which would be difficult for any player to live up to.
Speaking to the Associated Press, Best outlined that the two men are different in how they play and that while Ringrose may not do some things quite like Dricko, he has his own strengths to his game.
People just want this fantasy that there's another Brian O'Driscoll out there: there isn't another Brian O'Driscoll.
There's another great, young guy, who happens to be from Dublin who happens to play 13 - but he's not going to be exactly the same.
There are some things Garry doesn't do as well as Drico, but there are other things he could potentially do better than Drico. He has to be his own player.
I think people often want to draw similarities: people saw Drico thrown in as a 20-year-old so they say, 'Let's do that with Garry'
But the game's very different now as well. You've got to give this guy a chance as Joe (Schmidt) has done, and now he's reaping the benefits of it.
Joe brought him into training and let him get his bearings and learn a little bit behind the scenes, and that's definitely paid off.
A solid captain's move with the young Leinster man coming in for criticism for his performance against Scotland.
With Schmidt set to name his team to face Italy tomorrow lunchtime, it is expected that Ringrose will retain his place in the centre and will be hoping for a better result this time around.
