Brian O’Driscoll has said he would’ve got involved in rugby in some capacity regardless of whether he was a player or not, and wants youngsters around the world to feel the same way he did.
Former Ireland player and British and Irish Lion O’Driscoll is part of a team of HSBC Global Ambassadors involved in their World of Opportunity programme to give those looking to get into sport off the pitch experiences of the world of sport.
Throughout this year’s World Sevens Series, in Sydney, LA, Dubai and Hong Kong, prior to the tournament weekend, O’Driscoll and other HSBC Global Ambassadors hosted a series of workshops, showcasing and providing experience in the various jobs available within the world of sport.
It is his passion for sport that makes O’Driscoll feel that even he had not gone onto be one of Ireland’s all-time greats, he always wanted to pursue something in the realm of it as a career, initially being inspired by the 1996 film Jerry Maguire where Tom Cruise plays an American Football agent.
He said: “Before I became a professional rugby player, in my teenage years, I watched Jerry Maguire and wanted to be that character. I wanted to be involved in sport in some capacity and if I hadn’t gone onto be a player, I would’ve been involved in branding or marketing in a sporting context.
“It was what I loved, it was what my passion was. You’ve got a long time working to be going off doing something that you hate for 35 or 40 years and I thought: ‘No thanks.’
“Kids now have even created their own roles in the modern world that we live in, and created an environment for their passion to be their work. You look at the influencers, YouTubers, there are lots of people having fun in their careers but also making a living from it.
“So there’s an element of that in The World of Opportunity of just showing the next generation that they can actually do something that they love and also create a career from it.”
O’Driscoll wants children, teenagers and young adults around the world to realise that there are a huge number of stakeholders in sport beyond those that are playing on the pitch.
Though he knows that playing is the dream for many, he is also keen to display that many of the elements that make a career in sport so worthwhile can be attained in other career options involved in the game.
He added: “Although for most sports lovers and fans to play is the ultimate the reality is that only a small portion of people get to do that. So if sport is your passion and you love it, it doesn’t mean you have to go off and do something else.
“There’s lots of other roles to be had in a sporting context, and so through the programme we’ve looked to bring in the next generation of people to work in sport, giving them a sense of the opportunities that exist in a sporting context be it in the media, refereeing, advertising or stadium set-up.
“There are so many different components to a Rugby Sevens event that you can actually be involved in, so if you miss out on your first love of being a player you can still feel the energy and atmosphere in another capacity.
“Sometimes people don’t realise that. They miss out on being a player and think they have to go on and do something they don’t really want to do, whereas they can still chase their passion of being in a sporting context even if they miss out on their number one target.”
Though O’Driscoll didn’t play Rugby Sevens during his professional career this was largely due to the lack of opportunities to play the game in Ireland, who have since risen to be a regular fixture in the top eight of the World Sevens Series in recent years after formally re-launching their sevens programme in 2015.
And another one of the reasons the former Leinster man – who would likely have been a very adept sevens player had he turned his hand to it – is part of the ambassadorial programme for the series, is that he believes it is the best way to grow the world game.
“I do think that sevens is the route into growing the game globally,” he added. “A large part of that is the circuit, going to countries that are less synonymous with rugby, but also the Olympics.
“There are countries like China, Germany, and the USA who are huge Olympic lovers so they’re going to watch the games irrespective of what their team is partaking in for two and a half to three weeks, and all of sudden rugby is there for two or three days of it.
“Rugby Sevens is high octane, hugely physical and ticks all of the boxes of what they like, and that’s where you get lots of new eyeballs on it and people watch the sport in countries where they’ve never seen it before.
“So if we’re thinking about a global game, I think the route for it to grow is through sevens, and hopefully from that the men’s and women’s 15-a-side Rugby World Cups in America [in 2031 and 2033 respectively] will make a real difference.”
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