BUSINESS AS USUAL
O’Brien happy to make return
FIT-AGAIN Sean O’Brien has described his industrious Saturday night show in Belfast as ‘business as usual’.
The flanker has insisted that his first 80 minutes this season weren’t about him making an on-pitch statement following his headline-grabbing kerfuffle with Warren Gatland over the latter’s management of the Lions.
However, given that the book-plugging Gatland was on the verge of adding fuel to the fire with his no-punches-pulled
Mail on Sunday interview, which accused O’Brien of a lack of professionalism on tour in New Zealand, it was just as well the stand-in provincial captain had impressively performed on his comeback following yet another lay-off in a career blighted by injury in recent years.
It was O’Brien’s cracking break near the hour-mark that shattered an uninspired Ulster in a low-quality Pro14 derby, his flash of brilliance in the carry and transfer sending in Luke McGrath for the try that made light Dave Kearney’s sin-binning and propelled Leinster to their comprehensive 25-10 success at the Belfast stadium, where they hadn’t won since 2014.
Afterwards, completely unware that Gatland would overnight toss an unpinned grenade on to a bonfire O’Brien felt had petered out with his conciliatory phone call to the coach a fortnight ago today, he was full of pep, declaring himself ‘fit as a fiddle’ ahead of Ireland’s November 11 series opener against South Africa in Dublin.
He later relented a touch, admitting that there were times when he was ‘blowing hard’ at Ravenhill and how he could do with losing maybe half a kilo to be at his best fighting weight for the international in 12 days’ time.
He will surely feel immense pressure now to make good on this determination to be in the pristine nick, Gatland landing a leg-wobbling Sunday sucker punch by suggesting: ‘If he [O’Brien] can look himself in the mirror and say, “I was the most professional person on tour, on and off the field, in New Zealand”, in terms of the way he prepared himself, then I think his points would be more valid.’
So much then for the planned cordial few pints O’Brien thought would be on the cards between the pair this side of Christmas when he reached out to the coach over the phone on October 16.
Instead, despite Gatland describing O’Brien in his book as his player of the tour, Sunday’s scathing attack, which hints at aspects of the player’s conduct in New Zealand, will likely see this row run all the way through to next year and become part of the narrative in the build-up to Ireland versus Wales in the Six Nations on February 24.
The flanker, Leinster’s joint top tackler and his pack’s most effective carrier, with 30 metres off 15 runs up north, will be at Carton House today on Joe Schmidt’s watch, confident that he has laid the fitness and form foundation provincially to take on the Boks, which can’t definitively be said of Ireland skipper Rory Best, also on the Saturday night comeback trail.
The Ulster hooker’s fitness wasn’t totally scruffy on his 200th provincial appearance — he managed 56 minutes to add to his fleeting 18 the previous week in France after a tweaked hamstring delayed the start to his season. But his inability to run his team’s lineout efficiently and his lack of breakdown punch means he still has much to do to finesse his game if he is to lead by example as captain against South Africa.
He will be busy getting those kinks sorted. ‘The beauty of having this (non-match) camp week is that I can get a little bit extra done,’ he suggested.
‘Fitness is something I’m reasonably good at and it will come back pretty quickly. I feel good. There were areas that were a little disappointing, a little bit rusty, but there is another two weeks to get that right.’
Carton House attendance will be a relief to Best and five fellow Ulster colleagues as those they have left behind have a lengthy flight today to South Africa for next Saturday’s league fixture at the Kings in Port Elizabeth.
They travel pondering what has gravely gone wrong in the past two matches, 10-13 interval deficits at La Rochelle and at home to Leinster developing into deflating 24 and 15-point surrenders that must leave them fearing becoming European and Pro14 also-rans.
That’s a white flag fate far from high-flying Leinster’s thoughts, try-scoring Jordan Larmour the latest impressive emerging talent. With 18 players now in international camp, including HIA casualty James Ryan, their Friday night away tussle with a Glasgow similarly weakened by Test squad callups is a must-see given the rich calibre of their recognition-hungry kids.