WHEN ROCKY ELSOM announced he was reluctantly leaving Leinster to pursue further international honours back in June 2009, Michael Cheika knew he had a ready-made replacement already in his ranks.
The loss of a player of Elsom’s calibre is a blow to any side, particularly after the Australian spearheaded the province’s European triumph that year, but the then head coach didn’t panic.
Sean O’Brien’s development into a world-class flanker meant Cheika could go some way to filling Elsom’s sizable boots the following year without causing too much disruption to the team.
Once he got his chance, the Carlow native quickly established himself as one of Europe’s most dynamic operators, so much so that Cheika tried to lure him to France after taking over at Stade Francais.
“He’s doing alright, he’s a good lad,” Cheika said yesterday as he arrived in Dublin with his Australia side.
“I won’t lie about it – I tried to get him to go to Stade Francais when I went there. I thought he’s a quality player. I feel for him a bit because he’s been hampered by injury of the years. But if was a racehorse first from a gallop, I’ll tell you he’d be a winner every time.
“He comes back from a period off and gets into it like he’s been playing for six years, straight into it. Straight up to the physical presence side of the game as well. He’s a quality player.”
O’Brien demonstrated all that quality with an incredible individual performance against the All Blacks on Saturday in just his second game back on the international stage since returning from a lengthy injury layoff.
The Leinster flanker justified Joe Schmidt’s decision to start him against the world champions and Michael Hooper knows he and his team-mates will go up against one of the best this Saturday.
“More of what he’s been doing,” Hooper said when asked what he expects from O’Brien when the sides meet at the Aviva Stadium.
“A very impressive player. The times I’ve played him he’s been great. Starting this week we’ll be looking at what he’s been doing in the past few games in more depth and seeing where we can potentially benefit and see where he could hurt us.
“There’s no secret we want to play fast ball and get our ball moving along to field. With players who are good on the ball it’s a team effort in making sure they’re not a nuisance to your attack.
“It’s a 1-15 job and has been a focus for us this whole year. It’s about doing what we do really well and then we allow those guys to not have a huge effect on our game.”
– First published at 06.00
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