"The magic has even temporarily deserted Brian O'Driscoll."

I read those words from one media critic after Ireland's defeat to Australia last weekend and wondered what exactly we want from these guys. We get blood, on a regular basis. Do we expect their lives to be laid down for their country's rugby team?

Now you can say that every time O'Driscoll arrives in another country, he might be tempted to adopt the Oscar Wilde entry statement: "I have nothing to declare except my genius." But really, this is not a subject for jokes.

By my reckoning, O'Driscoll has played rugby in 20 of the last 22 months of his life. If he started training late August 2008 with Leinster, he would have been involved for the remaining four months of that year. In 2009, he captained Ireland to a first Grand Slam for 61 years and was a key figure in Leinster's Heineken Cup win.

Within weeks, Ireland's captain was in South Africa with the Lions. He played a critical part in that series and performed heroically. When he finally got home, O'Driscoll presumably got a couple of months off before training began for the new season.

In November, he again led Ireland on the international stage, scoring a crucial try against Australia to snatch a draw from the game, and leading the team to victory over South Africa.

Before that, there had been the Heineken Cup and occasional Magners League games and then the Six Nations Championship came along. When all that was over and Leinster had fallen in the Heineken Cup and narrowly missed out on the Magners League crown, there was the June tour to New Zealand and Australia to think about.

Now, in my experience, no player has ever actually looked forward to the day his career ended. But even so, would a player like O'Driscoll not be human if, at some point, he hadn't imagined what it will be like when he can step off this year-round roller-coaster, when he can get up late on a Saturday morning, just put on a pair of shorts and an old rugby shirt and drift down to the local cafe knowing that the day is his. In other words, do what the rest of us do and enjoy so much.

So, they're the great privileged of society, these guys, I hear you say. They shouldn't be moaning; not with the money they earn, the cars, the glamour and the prestige. Well, they're not. They accept that certain responsibilities go with those rewards and, believe me, understand how fortunate they are.

But that doesn't mean the game itself has the right to flog them like cart horses. If you have a thoroughbred racehorse, you don't enter it for every tuppence ha'penny event all year round. You don't send it out expecting it to perform and show its class in every single race. You nurture it; protect it as though it were a prized investment. Which is what it is.

Why? Because the best racehorses -- like the best rugby players -- only have a certain amount of performances in them. When that number has been reached, whatever it is, they are generally finished.

I thought of a player like O'Driscoll when I listened to the words of self-congratulations coming from the IRB when they announced that longer-term tours, something like the old-fashioned variety, were coming back. Great, said most people in the game. Wonderful; another link with tradition restored.

But it will only be great for the best players, like O'Driscoll, if it means they aren't going to be driven even harder. If some recompense is to be made for the fact that they may need to play in a three-Test series in the southern hemisphere in June, where will the slack be cut in the preceding months?

The fact is, if the return of so-called 'traditional' tours means loading ever more commitments onto the shoulders of the world's greatest players, all the IRB will be doing is hastening their demise. And from where I sit, that doesn't look a terribly clever idea.

- Peter Bills

Irish Independent

The Ireland and Lions centre is out of contract this summer at Leinster.

And Sport of the World understands the Welsh side are planning an amazing transfer coup.

They were linked with Worcester's wantaway All-Black centre Sam Tuitupou, but have turned all their attention to landing Ireland's Grand Slam winner, who has already held talks with the ambitious Welsh region.

D'Arcy, 30, has spent his entire career in Dublin and lifted the Heineken Cup last season with Leinster.

But he has seen the success of Ireland team-mate Tommy Bowe since moving to the Liberty Stadium and is looking for a fresh move.

D'Arcy, capped 41 times, is a proven match-winner and has been one of the top centres in Europe for the past six years.

He formed a lethal partnership for club and country with Brian O'Driscoll and was Six Nations Player of the Tournament in Ireland's Triple Crown successes in 2004 and 2007.

He also twice toured with the Lions in 2005 and again in 2008 when he played alongside Ospreys' James Hook, Mike Phillips and Shane Williams.

It would be a major capture for the Welsh region to land such a prolific player as they look to build a squad capable of conquering Europe.

Under current rules, D'Arcy would take the overseas spot of Filo Tiatia, who is retiring and one of eight players set to leave the Ospreys this summer.

The decision by the Ospreys to chase another inside centre will also raise doubts over a possible return for Gavin Henson, who commanded the No12 jersey before taking leave following injury.

Lièvremont: Tough decisions to make

France coach Marc Lièvremont is weighing up the pros and cons of France's domestic success ahead of the June tour to South Africa and Argentina.

France's relatively young squad is shaping up well ahead of the World Cup in New Zealand, having taken a Grand Slam this year and with French clubs favourites for both Heineken and Challenge Cups (the Heineken Cup Final is an all-French affair).

But the workload on his players is a draining one, as the Top 14 is still the tournament with the longest season of all the top countries, and Lièvremont's best will have played through that and the Six Nations and Heineken Cup as well.

"I am split between wanting to take the players who competed in the Six Nations and the desire to leave certain players who have had a very demanding season and who have ongoing little niggles to rest," he said to the Sud Ouest magazine.

"Some deserve to have a real two-month off-season to regenerate themselves one year away from the World Cup.

"On the other hand, it's an extremely tough tour."

Lièvremont added that there was a risk of breaking up the squad cohesion that had built over the current season and sounded a warning note to rugby chiefs to keep the players fresh.

"French rugby has found a really positive dynamic... despite a chaotic organisation," he said.

"As for the demands put on players, I feel we're a little in overdrive."

Out of reach: Marcus Horan

Marcus Horan offered a passionate defence of Irish rugby following a trio of sobering results in Europe.

Munster, Leinster and Connacht fell to French opposition over the weekend with the Top 14 supplying three of the finalists in the Heineken and Amlin Challenge Cups.

In a bruising pair of semi-finals, Leinster were convincingly dispatched by Toulouse while an unspectacular Biarritz ground out victory over Munster.

The lack of Irish representation in the Heineken Cup final for the first time in three years comes two months after the national team surrendered their Grand Slam to a vastly superior France.

But Horan, the Ireland and Munster prop, denies the nation's fortunes are on the slide.

"What can you read into these results when the draws were so tough with both Munster and Leinster coming to France?" he said.

"We both acquitted ourselves really well and both teams can be very proud of what they did.

"It was always going to be a tough test for us. After a quarter-final at home we knew we'd have to go to France twice and win both times if we were to win the competition.

"That would be a huge test for any team but to say that it means Irish rugby is on the way down is unfair."

Munster's defeat was the most dispiriting as it appeared to confirm suspicions that they are a fading force in Europe.

A day after a patched-up Leinster had been predictably outgunned by favourites Toulouse, they were overpowered 18-7 by a Biarritz side that finished a lowly seventh in the Top 14.

Yet Horan is surprised that Munster's obituary is being written and insists the 2006 and 2008 champions will be spurred on by the negativity.

"We've been written off before and it drives us. It's amazing how one game can turn things around," said the 32-year-old.

"There's a lot of fight left in the guys and these kind of defeats can only make the fellas stronger.

"This has happened to us before. We've had 10 years of it but still came back so I can't see why we can't come back from it again."

Munster's pedigree in Europe is second only to three-times champions Toulouse and they have been perennial contenders in the competition over the last decade.

Inevitably age has caught up with them and the main concern is that too many players are the wrong side of 30.

Established Ireland internationals Keith Earls and Tomas O'Leary have provided an injection of youth, but otherwise Munster's proud veterans now look a little too grizzled.

Critics claim the team urgently requires overhauling, but Horan insists they remain as ambitious as ever.

"Well, we are ageing. We're all getting older but a lot of us are playing some great rugby at the moment," he said.

"There's still great drive. There's a great mix of young players as well. It's always important to have a mix like that.

"No matter what team you are, as the years go on people will always say that you're getting too old. It's an excuse that people will use.

"But the drive is definitely there. Guys are keen and it still means so much to them."

Full-back Paul Warwick believes Munster will continue to challenge for European honours next season.

"This team definitely still has it in them - we are not a fading force," he said.

"There's huge desire and ambition and that will never be questioned with the talent we have in the dressing room."