JIMMY O’BRIEN IS confident that Johnny Sexton’s three-match suspension won’t affect Ireland’s preparations for the Rugby World Cup.
Earlier this week the Ireland captain was handed a three-game ban for his actions following the Champions Cup final in Dublin, meaning the 38-year-old will miss all three of Ireland’s World Cup warm-up games next month.
However O’Brien says the squad won’t be losing any sleep over not having their captain available for the fixtures, admitting he wasn’t even aware of the news until he came back into camp this week.
“I didn’t even know when it was announced,” O’Brien says.
“I came in (to camp) and the lads said it. You’re kind of in a bubble and it keeps going. He got the ban and then it’s just like, ‘what’s the next thing? We’re going training’.
“It is what it is.
We’ll just keep going, and other lads will get a chance. He’ll be back for the World Cup, and it hasn’t really affected us much.”
Sexton has continued to train away out in Abbotstown as he works his way back to full fitness, and will remain an important figure across Ireland’s August schedule.
“He lets whoever is captain do the role (on matchweeks) but he’ll definitely be involved. He’s so experienced and so good you want him to be involved. He’ll definitely help out and it’s training as usual at the moment.”
Training has, by all accounts, been quite intense, with players outside the squad coming in to help out with numbers at different stages.
“We just had Bomber come in, Andrew Conway, for a week,” O”Brien explains. “He came in for a week, a few lads were getting load managed. It was pretty cool having him back in training.”
Tomorrow the squad will finish up another two week block out in Abbotstown, spending next week away from camp before coming back in to prepare for the opening August warm-up clash with Italy on 5 August. The warm-up games will offer O’Brien another opportunity to build on a promising start to his international career, with the versatile Leinster back already clocking up five caps since winning his Test debut against the Springboks last November.
Given his ability to cover multiple positions across the backline, he’s already proved a valuable addition to the squad – already playing at centre, fullback and on the wing at Test level.
“I think they know now that if there’s any gap to be filled in training, or someone isn’t training they move me in and it’s expected now I have to make sure I know everything. I’m not like a headless chicken running around, but I have to make sure I know all the roles just in case.
“Obviously I had a lot of confidence (coming back in), played in the Autumn. In the Six Nations I didn’t play a lot, but was in around the squad a lot so definitely have confidence that I’m trusted and can do it in different positions. Hopefully I get a chance in the warm-up games.”
All going well, he’ll end the summer with a place in Farrell’s final 33-man selection for the World Cup. Should that happen, it will be O’Brien’s second trip to a World Cup – although the last one didn’t quite go to plan.
“I went to the 2015 (World Cup) one in Wales… Me and Will Connors went over together, we were friends growing up, and our Dads. The four of us went over.
“I was 18 I think, I was just about to start college. We didn’t get to an Ireland game, we couldn’t get tickets. We went to France v New Zealand in the quarter-final, Julian Savea scored that try where he bumped everyone over.
“I think it’s everyone’s dream playing rugby (to play in a World Cup). I was just in the sub-academy (in 2015) so was pretty far away from going to a World Cup, but it was definitely a dream of mine growing up.”
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