O’Brien is learning to choose his battles
SO FAR this season, Sean O’Brien’s most memorable contribution to the rugby world has arguably been his stinging criticism of Warren Gatland, but the Carlow native has proved far shrewder at picking his on-field encounters.
In total, O’Brien has lined out just four times for Leinster during their current campaign, playing the full 80 minutes on only two occasions — against Ulster in October and away to Exeter in December.
For a player of such high value to Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt, being kept in bubble wrap is nothing new, but recently O’Brien has been forced to manage his gametime in order to protect a troublesome hip injury.
He has not featured for Leo Cullen since being withdrawn shortly before the hour mark in the Aviva Stadium return clash with Exeter, a game in which the Tullow Tank was clearly not operating at his full capacity.
And speaking yesterday, O’Brien admitted that had it not been a game of such importance to Leinster’s season, he may well have found himself watching on from the Lansdowne Road stands.
‘Probably the clientele we were coming up against was one thing, and the importance of the game,’ he admits.
‘If I didn’t think I would have added to the game I would have pulled it myself. It was one of those things where I had to get through it.
‘If there was a final in the morning, I’d probably play. But knowing from previous injuries you have to take your time and make sure it’s right for what lies ahead.’
Having successfully negotiated his way through the European double-headers, O’Brien will play no part in Saturday’s RDS showdown with Ulster but he remains hopeful of returning for the Champions Cup ties with Glasgow and Montpellier before Ireland get their Six Nations campaign underway in Paris on February 3.
‘The quicker I move, the better I feel but it’s been good the last two weeks, it’s improved a lot.
‘Basically it’s been like having a tight muscle all the time but I’ve been rehabbing away and hope to be fit for next week.
‘It’s not like I was after getting a knock. It was just tightness and there was nothing really that I could have pulled or anything like that, it just would have got sore. So that’s why I played [against Exeter], but I felt good to play.
‘I know my body as well. You keep pounding something that’s not 100 per cent right… and the way I play as well doesn’t help things.
‘So you don’t want to be carrying a niggle from game to game, and that’s basically it, really. You want to get on top of it and get it strong again, and then go again, have it right and keep building on it.’
Of course, such is Leinster’s assortment of riches that even without O’Brien for the Christmas inter-provincial derby wins against Munster and Connacht, younger players like Josh van der Flier and Dan Leavy proved well capable of deputising for the two-time Lions tourist.
‘We’ve put ourselves in a good place and the next few weeks will probably define our whole season,’ O’Brien continued, explaining that while standards are as high as they were during the Heineken Cup-winning golden era when he first burst on to the scene, the province have had to build a new culture which is more in tune with some of those younger stars in Cullen’s squad.
‘It’s a different time and a different squad and probably a bit of a different culture but it is certainly an exciting place to be right now.
‘What’s different from that [era] is you have lost a load of lads that created that culture so you bring a load of younger lads in and how do they know what that culture is? They haven’t experienced it or developed it.
‘Now it is a bit different. The culture we have now is one they have been involved in, added to and evolved. They have grown up with it the last year or two so it is theirs. It is not Brad Thorn’s or Nathan Hines’ or Leo’s or any of those lads.
‘That was the culture we were involved in then and it has to change as new players come in or they won’t know what it is about.
‘Of course we [older group] learn as well but we probably learn a little bit quicker because of our experiences, or we should do.
‘We should know going over to the likes of Clermont how to beat them over there.
‘Transferring that to the rest of the group is the challenge for us. We know we need to hit the ground
running in a place like that and not give them a kick start and then nearly win a game. That’s the difference. ‘A lot of the younger guys this year have learned an awful lot and they are in a place now where they are humming. ‘We’re building nicely and we have a lot of work to do.’ And no doubt, Sean O’Brien will have a central part to play.
Seán O’Brien was in the RDS to launch LifeStyle Sports’ latest competition where fans attending Leinster’s next four home games will have an opportunity to win a €50 gift card