IT MAY ONLY be a temporary measure, but Sean O’Brien has been embracing his extra responsibilities in the early weeks of Leinster’s 2023/24 campaign.
Having previously represented them as a player on 126 occasions over an 11-year period (2008-2019), the Carlow native was appointed to the role of contact skills coach at the province in the summer of 2022.
However, with incoming senior coach Jacques Nienaber away at the Rugby World Cup with South Africa – and his predecessor Stuart Lancaster now at the helm of Racing 92 in the Top 14 – O’Brien found himself in charge of the Leinster defence for the start of the new United Rugby Championship season.
Following an opening round defeat to Glasgow Warriors, Leo Cullen’s men subsequently bounced back with bonus point triumphs at home to The Sharks and Edinburgh over the past two weekends. Because Nienaber isn’t expected to assume his duties for another few weeks, O’Brien is continuing to look after the defence for the time being with Sunday’s away trip to Dragons in the URC next on the agenda.
While they will be gradually reintroduced to competitive action, all of Leinster’s international contingent have returned to the province and some of them are expected to feature at Rodney Parade this weekend.
“When Leo said it to me a while ago [about being a defence coach], I wanted to put my own stamp on it. I am happy enough, pleased with the weekend until the last 10 minutes in how we defended,” O’Brien remarked at a media briefing yesterday, referencing their 36-27 victory over Edinburgh on Saturday.
“It’s a funny one because when Jacques comes in, I will go back to the contact and breakdown. In a way, I will have to sit behind Jacques and the other coaches in terms of going to the next level because the progression for me would be a full defensive role at some point. I still have to learn my trade. I am a year and a half into coaching at this level, so I am aware of that.
“I am having great conversations with Goodie [Andrew Goodman] on the attack side as well. I like doing both sides of the ball and it is just learning at the minute for me. It’s a lot of hours, I will say that. You know that as a player, but when you are part of it you see how much goes into it from all angles. It’s been very enjoyable.”
Given his South African side faced Ireland over the course of their successful defence of the World Cup in France – with 13 Leinster players featuring in a 13-8 pool stage win over the Springboks – O’Brien’s conversations with Nienaber have been relatively limited to date.
While he doesn’t yet have a full sense of what he will bring to the table once he links up with Leinster, O’Brien believes a lot of the structures that are already in place at the province will remain after Nienaber’s arrival.
“He was still involved with South Africa and most of our players were playing with Ireland, so you could see from his perspective that he wasn’t going to divulge too much until the WC was over.
“He just sent a text after the last game, ‘great effort and energy, the D was good’. Other than that it has been very limited conversations until he gets over.
“We have definitely tried to bring a bit more line speed, in terms of my own system, but we are definitely not defending like the Springboks are. That’s been made clear to the lads, I’ve spelled that out to them.
“Whether we do that or not when Jacques comes in is a different story because our defensive system in general has been really good over the last few years. That will be his own thing, whatever stamp he wants to put on it, but I’m sure he’ll marry up some of the stuff that is already in place. Some of the fundamentals of our ‘D’ with some new stuff that he wants to introduce.”
Away from his duties with Leinster, O’Brien is keeping himself busy on a number of different fronts. In addition to lining out for Tullow in Leinster League Division 1A – he filled in at out-half for a game against Suttonians when their first and second choice No 10s were out injured – he is also Director of Rugby at his hometown club this year.
When you also throw farming and his exploits on the GAA field with The Fighting Cocks into the mix (he appeared off the bench in their narrow defeat to St Mullin’s in the Carlow Junior ‘A’ Football Championship decider in September), the 36-year-old is constantly on the go.
“I don’t sleep that much actually. I sleep five or six hours a night! Then the farm is busy as well. That keeps me going as well. I’m very busy at the minute, but it’s good. I’ve always been busy, I’ve always liked that. I don’t like sitting still for too long,” O’Brien added.