SEAN O’BRIEN can be a hard man to get a handle on at the best of times.
This week, he was even harder pin down than usual as the flanker has been at the centre of a minor communication break-down between the Lions and Leinster.
His province maintained he could play against Ulster in tomorrow’s Pro12 final, the amalgamated power of the unions said his bruised knee was at least a two-week lay-off.
Perhaps the truth was somewhere in between.
“It’s been a massive improvement since the start of the week.” O’Brien says as he is cornered by our microphones in a corridor of a Donnybrook hotel.
Another slap
“Saturday morning I was pretty sore and I thought there’d probably be no chance, but come Monday evening I was feeling 20 times better. I had range back in my knee, the swelling had gone down and I was even jogging around on it – probably feeling a little too good even.
“There’s a risk involved, and if it does get another slap it could turn into a long-term thing.”
Having divided his week between province and pride, the smart money says O’Brien won’t feature in Leinster’s fourth straight shot at the Celtic League title.
Rather than go toe-to-toe with Chris Henry, he will likely watch from the RDS Grandstand as Ulster bid to frustrate the blues at breakdown and set-piece for the third time this season.
“Around the breakdown area they don’t give you an inch. They probably do what every good team does around the breakdown – probably cheat a lot and get away with it. That’s up for us to sort out.
“We probably do it ourselves at times too. It’s all part of the game.
“We know we’re not going to get anything easy off them. We’ll have to make sure we get our own stuff right and see what happens from there.”
While some might feel a weekend in cotton wool ensure a smooth flight to Hong Kong, the Carlow man is in no doubt that he would prefer to link up with the squad battle-hardened.
“It’s good to be playing games at this time of year. You hope you won’t have to do the rigorous fitness sessions landing over in Hong Kong or Australia.
“Obviously the lads have been in and going through game-plans, line-outs and different calling structures for general play, so we’ll have to catch up on things like that.”He added: “I feel really fresh at the minute. I played all the Six Nations games, all the European games from Christmas on. But I haven’t played a massive amount of rugby this year overall.
“I feel good, the body feels good and I feel strong. Obviously it’s going to be a hectic schedule. [Playing] Wednesday-Saturday is going to take its toll, but hopefully we can get through it all.”
O’Brien was speaking to the media assembled for the launch of a game which has immortalised the Tullow Tank in app format. There’s another fringe benefit of, not only his freshness and strength, but adding ‘Lions’ to the 27 international caps on his CV.
This tour carries O’Brien in esteemed company. Few good back rows operate on negligible competition for places, but the 2013 Lions are decorated indeed. 2009 incumbent Lions Tom Croft, Jamie Heaslip; then the Welsh quartet of Dan Lydiate, Toby Faletau, Justin Tipuric and Sam Warburton.
The latter two, just happen to play in O’Brien’s favoured position at openside, never mind Warburton holding a captain’s rank.
Impact replacement?
Lions forwards coach Graham Rowntree this week refused to nail down a single position where he could see O’Brien thriving. The word ‘impact’ was also emphasised by the ex-Leicester man and you sense that a place among the Test match replacements is the 26-year-old’s current spot in the pecking order.
With seven games to go before facing the Wallabies in Brisbane, however, O’Brien has the competition fixed in his sights.
“You’ve a lot of experience there; Tom and Jamie have been on a Lions tour already. But we’re all capable of doing a job and I hope it’s going to be me. Whether it’s six, seven or eight; whatever needs be.
“Being able to play all three certainly has something to it. Hopefully [Gatland] sees it that way as well and I’m selected.”
You can play as Sean O’Brien (in his Tullow RFC jersey) on Street Rugby, available now to download for iPad.
The number 7′s task is avoid or burst through obstacles on his way from The Spire to the Aviva Stadium. ‘Tullow Tank mode’ is the power-up to help you along the way.
