SAM WANTS THE Make hay LIFE OF when sun has Sean BRIAN Ace Arnold has dreamt of following the path of BOD
SAM ARNOLD has wanted to follow in Brian O’driscoll’s footsteps since he was 11 years old – this summer, his chance could come.
O’driscoll made his Ireland debut in Australia almost 20 years ago and Arnold, the Munster centre who learned his trade at Ulster but was born and bred in Surrey, could do the same in June.
The 21-year-old was brought to Spain by Joe Schmidt for the pre-six Nations training camp and has been working with the
Ireland squad at Carton
House.
He was also part of the open training session at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday as Schmidt lost another centre, with Chris Farrell suffering ACL damage.
“I want to play for Ireland, that’s no secret,” said Arnold.
“To be honest, I tried to look ahead a couple of years ago, and by looking too far ahead, it didn’t work out for me, with injuries and stuff like that.
“The main thing for me is breaking it down into mini-cycles – one week at a time, try to get better every week.”
He admits to a split allegiance between the country of his birth and that of his Wexford-born mother and his extended family, including a grandfather from Bere Island in Cork.
But it was watching O’driscoll (inset) and Gordon D’arcy that captured his youthful imagination. His favourite O’driscoll moment came for Leinster against
Ulster in 2007, when the Ireland legend passed the ball to himself.
“I tried it a few times and hit someone on the head with it,” smiled Arnold.
“I’d spend a lot of summers at my granny and granddad’s. Mum would always have been cheering for Ireland, my stepdad would’ve been cheering for England.
“I grew up watching
Drico, D’arcy, those guys, and ever since we did the
Irish stuff at 16, I haven’t wanted to play for any other country.”
Like Connacht’s Kieran Marmion, he is a product of the Exiles and an underage international.
“I mightn’t have the Irish accent but I feel more Irish than a lot of people,” said Arnold.
“I’d give absolutely everything if I got the opportunity to wear the jersey. If I did I’d be incredibly grateful.”
He hit the ground running at the start of this season and the call from Schmidt in January was a welcome reward.
“For Joe to ring and tell me he wanted me to come in, it does give you that kind of lift that you might not be too far away.
“It stays in the back of your head that there might be a sniff sometime in the future if you keep working hard.”
Cheetahs Connacht Tomorrow, 5.35pm
v GIVEN the weather back home, Connacht’s players can expect little sympathy as they acclimatise to conditions in the Highveld in South Africa.
But spare a thought for Sean O’brien, a 6’5” red-head who has been training in soaring temperatures all week in the thin air of Bloemfontein.
Ahead of the Westerners’ Pro14 clash with the Cheetahs tomorrow, the 23-year-old lock said: “As your stereotypical ginger Irish man, walking out into 30 degree heat is dangerous stuff. But it’s been grand.
“I have just been slathering the sun cream every day. Just trying to acclimatise to the Highveld. Getting used to that now is the next big thing.”
Given that many of the