LAST FRIDAY NIGHT was a very special one for the Byrnes.
24-year-old Bryan and Ed have, of course, played together ever since meandering out alongside their big brother Thomas for Carlow U8s, but Friday’s mismatch against the Southern Kings was the first time the twin brothers started in Leinster’s senior number one and two jerseys.
The loosehead and hooker dovetailed brilliantly too, giving head coach Leo Cullen and senior coach Stuart Lancaster plenty of cause to double take and consider unleashing them in harness numerous times in future.
Ed made inroads in heavy traffic, Bryan barged over the try-line twice and looked completely comfortable attacking the outside channels, at one point cleverly straightening up his running line before popping a try-assisting pass away to Barry Daly.
“I suppose I’d know him inside out playing with him,” hooker Bryan says of prop Ed.
“I’d probably throw the offload to him before I’d throw it to someone else because I know he is expecting it.
“Especially scrummaging together, I’d know what he wants. In terms of setup and stuff we’d always be comfortable. So yeah, it was very nice to be starting together.”
“Even in terms of running lines and things on the pitch — if he is going to throw the offload, I’d know the way he was carrying – so I kind of expect him to understand if I am going to pass to him or whatever.
“We have that understanding. Even before games we’d talk: ‘listen, this might be on’ especially in the scrum we’ll talk to each other, see what the tighthead is up to and help eachother out.”
Bryan calls Ed the ‘dominant personality’ of the duo, though he doesn’t waste any time informing the table of reporters that he is the elder twin… by three minutes.
Throw in highly-rated centre Tom Daly (recovering from ACL injury) and it’s clear there is a growing Carlow family in the Leinster setup. However, nobody is in any doubt about who the father figure is.
“You go down to Carlow, you’ll know that he is the main man down there,” Byrne says of Sean O’Brien.
“Coming in on day one I kind of knew him. I’d met him a few times in school, but you have that instant connection.
After games he would come up and say I did this well or ‘look at that clip.’ He would always be giving pointers.”
As things stand, the Tullow Tank is the sole Lion produced by the midlands county, so Byrne certainly recognises the weight of his words.
“He’s treated like a God down there. It is nice coming into the academy when you are young to have someone like that around. I remember him coming over to the house and showing us a few cooking skills. He has always been good to us.”
“He’s down there two and three times a week. He does love it and he is very good to Carlow, and Tullow especially.”
O’Brien was due to step up his running programme this week as he recovers from hip surgery, but he won’t make the trip to face Scarlets on Saturday in Llanelli. A 10-try rout wasn’t the most stern test ahead of facing the champions, but perhaps a drop in intensity could prove helpful in between enthralling clashes with Wayne Pivac’s side.
“The work-on from the Scarlets week, we felt we could have got off the line better and worked on spacing. For the Kings, the focus was more to be better ourselves.
“We looked (in the Monday review) at our own stuff, set-pieces. Going into the (Kings) game we said we’d focus on a quick start and we got that – two tries in the first 10 minutes. Then I suppose defensively we were happy enough to put pressure on them and keep line-speed, space etc. Focus areas for all games basically.”
For Bryan, his twin brother Ed and a host of peers battling their way up the Leinster depth chart, the weekend ahead is more than just another game. Scarlets represents the end of the four-match Pro14 block running within the Six Nations schedule. The competition will break for three weeks and then the international constraints on selection will fall away again. This is the time to make an impression.
“The fact Sean (Cronin) is away with Ireland, there is one less to compete with. There is serious competition in the squad with Richardt (Strauss) and James (Tracy) here. For us, it’s improtant to try and play well in this period and then, hopefully, when the bigger games come to try and get the nod.”
The big bumps of confidence have come Byrne’s way since Champions Cup meetings with Glasgow and Montpellier. His selection is thanks in no small part to the attacking skill-set both Byrne twins promised since hitting the schools tugby scene in Clongowes colours. Under Lancaster, who drives players to be comfortable in unstructured attack, those skills are only getting better.
“When it is this competitive you are looking for a small point of difference to the other front rowers. So we would always be looking to work on stuff like the catch-pass and trying to run lines off nine and 10, Basically, putting our hands up for selection, doing as much as we can.”
“It is about confidence, 100%, once you’re in and out of the team every few weeks it’s tough to get momentum. But if you’re playing decent minutes every week, every second week it’s a lot easier to gel in.”
Easier again with a brotherly shove.
