Lion king O’Brien aims to lead star-studded

UNENCUMBERED by international call-ups, Sean O’Brien has challenged his London Irish side to use the Six Nations period to prove their worth as top six contenders.

With nine straight weekends of Premiership rugby ahead and the Exiles boosted by the availability of former Wallaby second rows Adam Coleman and Rob Simmons, Ireland and Lions back row O’Brien knows victory today would send a powerful message.

Asked if Champions Cup rugby was the goal, O’Brien said: “Absolutely! With the calibre of players and the set-up here, that’s definitely something we want to do as a squad. That’s why we just want to get a few games under our belts now and get some consistency going.

“These next nine weeks give us a bit of time together and an opportunity to really stamp our gameplan on teams. We’ll aim to play a good brand of rugby, put some ‘Ws’ on the board and, hopefully, we’ll not have any more disruptions and can hit form.”

High-flying Newcastle will be a hard nut to crack, and O’Brien added: “They have a couple of good things going for them: they have a very good, strong set-piece and they’re very well coached defensively with Nick Easter in there.