Leinster talisman Brian O'Driscoll will skip Friday's Royal Wedding in favour of Leinster training ahead of their Heineken Cup showdown with Toulouse on Saturday. The Guardian's Donald McRae writes.
"Brian O'Driscoll has sidestepped his invitation to the royal wedding on Friday in favour of a Leinster training session and admitted that he would never have lived down the backchat from his team‑mates if he had put William and Kate ahead of a huge European match in Dublin.
"Mike Tindall, as Zara Phillips's fiance, presumably has no option but to grit his teeth and turn up but O'Driscoll has found the perfect excuse to evade royal wedding duties. In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, the Leinster and Ireland centre admitted he could not miss the captain's run on Friday afternoon as his club prepares for this weekend's Heineken Cup semi-final against Toulouse.
"As big an honour as it was to be invited I can't ask for team runs to be at half-six in the evening so I can go to the royal wedding at Westminster Abbey," O'Driscoll said. "One thing I learnt early on my career is that personal gratification takes second place. The team ethos comes first even after 12 years. My wife [the Irish actor Amy Huberman] is going on our behalf as we also felt there was an element of our representing Ireland as well. It's going to be an incredible thing, with two billion watching, but I'll be at home, preparing for Toulouse."
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