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O'Brien: focused. ©INPHO/Cathal Noonan
Heineken Cup

O’Brien keeping his eye on the ball

Leinster can’t worry about results elsewhere until they get the job done themselves, back-row Sean O’Brien says.

THE COMBINATIONS AND permutations will be less complicated by the time Leinster kick off on Saturday evening but Sean O’Brien knows they can’t afford to take their eye off the ball, not even to puzzle over the maths.

Once Montpellier and Toulon go about their business, another unknown in the scramble for the Heineken Cup quarter-finals will reveal itself and the champions’ task will become a little clearer.

As it stands Leinster are on 15 points, ranked fifth among those still in the hunt for the two “best runner-up” spots, but Joe Schmidt’s men will have to wait on other results even if they beat Exeter at Sandy Park.

No matter which way the pool six finale in France ends, O’Brien says it won’t have any effect on their preparation.

“It’s something that’s probably outside of our control and we won’t know a whole lot about it going out onto the field. We’ll have our game heads on at that stage. I keep reiterating it — we have to do our own jobs and I think that’s the mindset for every player this week.”

Another bonus point to add to the one picked up against Scarlets would certainly boost their chances of making it to the last eight. Before last weekend’s glut Leinster only had three tries to show from their opening four matches in the competition, but their dynamic back-row says the scores shouldn’t be forced.

“Small little things were letting us down. We were creating opportunities but not finishing them in the first couple of games and it is good that we’re finishing off a couple of them now and creating even more.

You can call it pressure if you want looking from the outside, but for us it’s the same every week. We want to score 10 tries every week — or 20 tries. It’s about getting into the right areas of the field, it’s about building pressure, it’s about finishing things off, it’s about our set pieces.

“There’s so much to go right. Everything has to be like clockwork really and the opportunities will come for us.”

He added: “We can’t be throwing 50/50 passes or trying too hard. We know that if we stick to our game plan we’ll get opportunities and it’s just about finishing them off.”

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