TOMMY O’BRIEN DESCRIBED some of Bordeaux’s play as an “eye-opener” as he assessed Leinster’s 41-19 defeat by the European champions in Bilbao on Saturday.
Like several of his teammates and head coach Leo Cullen, wing O’Brien was both deferential to Bordeaux’s brilliance and frustrated with Leinster’s lack of clinicality.
O’Brien, who opened the scoring with an early try in the right-hand corner, felt Leinster were unfortunate in a number of instances but that Bordeaux had ‘made their own luck’ such was the speed with which they attacked in the first half.
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“It was a tough one,” O’Brien told journalists from the mixed zone post-match. “We felt good about the plan, it felt like we had a really good plan going into it. It just felt like a lot of the one-on-one battles, the 50-50s weren’t going our way. Obviously there is an element of that where you make your own luck, and they made some of that, to be fair to Bordeaux. They were the better team on the day.
“It’s definitely a bit of an eye-opener, some of the stuff Bordeaux put out there today. Probably similar to that France-Ireland game (in this year’s Six Nations), it seems that balls are bouncing their way but if it keeps happening, it’s not just luck, there is something more to it.”
O’Brien echoed the sentiments of Leinster captain Caelan Doris in insisting the eastern province will come again next season in pursuit of a fifth European title.
At 27, and having never featured in a Champions Cup-winning campaign, O’Brien’s perception of the tournament has changed significantly since his younger days.
“It’s such a tough competition to win. I probably didn’t realise it. My first year was 2018 and they won it and I was naively thinking, ‘This is going to happen every year.’ So it’s just an eye-opener.
“I think everyone is pretty well aware of it, how hard a competition it is to win. We work so hard to get to these games, obviously a long season, we work so hard to get here, and it was a good thing to be in this final.
“It’s pretty bitter when you don’t get the right performance and you don’t get the right result at the end.”
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‘It’s definitely a bit of an eye-opener, some of the stuff Bordeaux put out there’
TOMMY O’BRIEN DESCRIBED some of Bordeaux’s play as an “eye-opener” as he assessed Leinster’s 41-19 defeat by the European champions in Bilbao on Saturday.
Like several of his teammates and head coach Leo Cullen, wing O’Brien was both deferential to Bordeaux’s brilliance and frustrated with Leinster’s lack of clinicality.
O’Brien, who opened the scoring with an early try in the right-hand corner, felt Leinster were unfortunate in a number of instances but that Bordeaux had ‘made their own luck’ such was the speed with which they attacked in the first half.
“It was a tough one,” O’Brien told journalists from the mixed zone post-match. “We felt good about the plan, it felt like we had a really good plan going into it. It just felt like a lot of the one-on-one battles, the 50-50s weren’t going our way. Obviously there is an element of that where you make your own luck, and they made some of that, to be fair to Bordeaux. They were the better team on the day.
“It’s definitely a bit of an eye-opener, some of the stuff Bordeaux put out there today. Probably similar to that France-Ireland game (in this year’s Six Nations), it seems that balls are bouncing their way but if it keeps happening, it’s not just luck, there is something more to it.”
O’Brien echoed the sentiments of Leinster captain Caelan Doris in insisting the eastern province will come again next season in pursuit of a fifth European title.
At 27, and having never featured in a Champions Cup-winning campaign, O’Brien’s perception of the tournament has changed significantly since his younger days.
“It’s such a tough competition to win. I probably didn’t realise it. My first year was 2018 and they won it and I was naively thinking, ‘This is going to happen every year.’ So it’s just an eye-opener.
“I think everyone is pretty well aware of it, how hard a competition it is to win. We work so hard to get to these games, obviously a long season, we work so hard to get here, and it was a good thing to be in this final.
“It’s pretty bitter when you don’t get the right performance and you don’t get the right result at the end.”
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Leinster Rugby Tommy O'Brien