Former Ireland manager Brian O’Driscoll has revealed the truth behind the controversial incident at Villa Park last Saturday.
The incident in question happened before Leicester’s PREM clash with Gloucester, when head coach Geoff Parling. confronted TNT anchor Craig Doyle on live television.
Doyle had told fellow player Liam McDevitt to kick a goal as a start to his first appearance on the show. This angered Parling, who pushed Doyle away, shouting: “It’s not messed up, get off the field, it’s not messed up”, leaving the two to leave the field quickly.
After much discussion about the incident, and a formal written apology on behalf of Parling, O’Driscoll revealed the play-by-play that led to the tragic incident.
“Craig went from doing this long, long monologue at the opening of the show,” the Irish coach said on the show. Off The Ball podcast.
“So he’s in the bells and whistles at Villa Park, showing off all the trophies over the years, the dressing rooms and stuff. So he’ll go onto the pitch, not really knowing what’s going on.”
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He explained that where the kick was put down, the Leicester Tigers attackers wanted to make their own net, so they threw the tee. But, believing they might have time, O’Driscoll said former football player McDevitt to put the tee back down.
“Maybe I’ll act sooner when Craig comes out,” said the 47-year-old.
“The problem was that the whole team had started to warm up around the posts, so when Craig had his spiel with Liam, then he kicked a goal – or missed it thankfully, because if he got it, it would have been close to the players – Geoff comes over and Craig thinks he’s coming to chat, how wrong he was.
However, he was not impressed with that, when I said, he pushed him, and then Craig came and asked me my first question.
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“I felt sorry for Craig, because, listen, he’s going through his process and like his line, ‘Can you sign him?’, expecting him to get a deal or something back.’
Many producers would have folded after such an unpleasant encounter, but his experience showed how he continued to be the true professional that he is.
O’Driscoll was impressed: “I have to say, he’s an unreal professional who can handle that.
“Because it didn’t happen to me, and I was like scared inside, whereas if it happened to you, and you had to do a full day show, it would be brutal.
“I’m not saying it didn’t play on his mind, but I’m telling you, you wouldn’t have known it was. There’s no one like him. There’s no one like him.”
The 55-year-old has been a prominent face in rugby since 2004, when he first joined the BBC Sport team, helping to cover the Six Nations and the Athens Summer Olympics.
Since then, he has gone from strength to strength, covering various television programs and becoming the face of TNT Sports (BT Sports) in 2013.
“There is no one better than him and just pulling in the dialogue and making it work, where behind the cameras, we’re going around, but nobody watching at home would know. “I’ve been involved in a few situations like that, so I have to say, I was very impressed,” said O’Driscoll.
The day went off without a hitch, with Parling’s Leicester side running out 17-36 winners against the West Country side.
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