{"id":650348,"date":"2026-10-10T07:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T07:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/650348\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T07:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T07:10:09","slug":"brian-odriscoll-reveals-ciaran-frawley-request-which-contradicts-narrative-after-high-profile-leinster-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/650348\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian O’Driscoll reveals Ciaran Frawley ‘request’ which contradicts ‘narrative’ after high-profile Leinster exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland<\/a> and Leinster legend Brian O\u2019Driscoll has claimed that Ciaran Frawley wanted to play centre rather than fly-half before deciding to head to Connacht in the summer.<\/p>\n

There was disappointment in Dublin when the 28-year-old decided to end his stay at the Irish giants and join their provincial rivals in Galway.<\/p>\n

The thought was that Frawley wanted to feature at fly-half having been denied that chance at Leinster<\/a> but, according to O\u2019Driscoll<\/a>, that was not the case.<\/p>\n

During the 2025\/26 campaign, the playmaker did not start a game at 10 for Leo Cullen\u2019s men, but the former Ireland<\/a> captain has suggested that the province was simply just following the request of the player.<\/p>\n

Frawley\u2019s \u2018request\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really interesting to see Frawley going to Connacht as a 10, it\u2019s my understanding that last year it was his request to play a bit more 12 rather than 10,\u201d he told Off The Ball,\u00a0before the host pointed out that it was \u201copposite to the narrative\u201d.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Driscoll responded, \u201cit is\u201d and added: \u201cMaybe there was an identification that there was a spot to be had. Stu McCloskey is obviously the man in situ at 12 with Ireland and with Bundee [Aki] very much in the winter of his career, maybe he felt that was an opportunity as a second distributor, which he\u2019s been very effective at, at times.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know there were conversations with Ulster before deciding to go across to Stuart Lancaster with Connacht.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes there\u2019s a bit of a guessing game going on and then you find out a little bit of intel and you go, \u2018oh, we were way off\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs squads, sometimes they might listen to us and go, \u2018they have no clue\u2019, but we\u2019ve got no way of knowing unless you\u2019re told or unless someone has a whisper in your ear.\u201d<\/p>\n

URC, Round Three: Predictions, teams, kick-off times, how to watch and referee appointments<\/a><\/p>\n

Frawley made an impressive start to his Connacht career by scoring two tries on debut against Benetton last weekend.<\/p>\n

The playmaker has retained his spot for their encounter with Glasgow Warriors where he will look to lay down another marker ahead of the Nations Championship.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old is already in Andy Farrell\u2019s thoughts for the Ireland 10 jersey having featured in all three games in July and a good run of form could see him usurp Sam Prendergast.<\/p>\n

The key thing for Frawley ahead of Nations Championship<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is interesting now is Frawley going and he\u2019s going to be playing 10 by the looks of things. [Josh] Ioane\u2019s at 15 this weekend, [Sam] Gilbert\u2019s not playing, so the goal-kicking component is going to be all-important if he wants to nail down the 10 jersey for Ireland,\u201d O\u2019Driscoll said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know whether he saw his ability to impact games better in the 12 jersey than the 10, you\u2019d have to think he was wrong if he did think that based on last weekend\u2019s performance because I thought he was really, really good.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just need to see a longer piece of what Ciaran Frawley in a Connacht green jersey looks like.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll be some tough days coming his way and how he deals with ball on the back foot is going to be all-important because they\u2019ll be games for Ireland that he\u2019ll find himself in that position.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow he manages the team in a particular game when it\u2019s not all going their way will be of real interest to the Irish coaching ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Brian O\u2019Driscoll: Jack Crowley still Ireland\u2019s 10 after Sam Prendergast\u2019s \u2018mixed bag\u2019 as no one\u2019s stock \u2018necessarily went up\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland and Leinster legend Brian O\u2019Driscoll has claimed that Ciaran Frawley wanted to play centre rather than fly-half…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[55315,21060,1100,61,60,10562,43,112,14881],"class_list":["post-650348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-brian-o","tag-connacht","tag-home-page","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-leinster","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-united-rugby-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}