Books: Uncontroversial memoir from Ireland's top No 13

The Test, Brian O'Driscoll, Penguin, €19.99

Brian O'Driscoll with his glamorous wife Amy Huberman.

John Paul O'Malley

On the 19th of March, 2000, in the Stade de France, Paris, a 20-year-old Brian O'Driscoll put in the most mesmerizing rugby performance ever witnessed in a green jersey: scoring a hat trick to secure Ireland's first win in the French capital since 1972.

Later that evening, after one too many beers with his team mate, Rob Henderson, O'Driscoll was spewing his guts up on the pavement of the Champs-Élysées.