LEINSTER ARE APPROACHING the opening set of inter-pros with a spring in their step thanks in part to the return of Sean O’Brien after five months out.
The 31-year-old missed the majority of last season, sidelined with hip and shoulder injuries, but after a long pre-season the Lions back row will be expected to be at full tilt when Leo Cullen’s charges train today.
“He’s back. He trained last week twice and, in the Thursday session, he did a nice bit of contact,” said scrum coach John Fogarty ahead of what would be a relatively light Monday training session in UCD.
“Chomping at the bit is Sean O’Brien at the moment.
“He is back in the programme fully. He’s going to train today (Monday) in a light session and tomorrow (Tuesday) is full on which he’s looking forward to.
“He’s back and he’s good and the medics are happy. The only thing is, he’s five months out and they will be watching like hawks over the week.”
“He’s fine. We’ve just got to be mindful of him returning. That’s all. But look, he’s back. He’s going to be training hard.”
A fit and well O’Brien clearly has positive implications for Ireland, with the World Cup, Six Nations and the All Blacks dominating the medium term landscape.
For Leinster, having O’Brien back in harness is a positive even in the very short term as they prepare to go to Galway with April’s 47-10 trouncing still very fresh in the memory.
“He’s a huge addition even in meetings. He adds such value.
“Sean is a little bit different. There is an edge to Sean in everything he does. There’s times when we lacked that. We definitely lacked that last year against Ospreys away, against Treviso at home (though O’Brien played the first half), against Connacht away… we lacked edge, this intangible thing that Sean can bring. He is a very valuable player.
“Let’s hope he gets back on his feet.”
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Maybe that’s why football in cork is the way it is… To find a loss very degrading against Kildare would make you imagine that it was a div four team that beat them…. Actions are bigger than words. When this group of pretty talented cork players play to their potential well then they can talk above their station, but then again potential is only a word…. #bottlers
I don’t think he meant losing to Kildare was degrading. It was the manner of defeat and the fact that they didn’t perform to their potential that upset him.
I’ve been watching Kildare since I could walk and that was the most accurate performance I ever saw. I’ve no idea where it came from but their foot-passing, score-taking and decision making were better than even our best days. I think we’d have beaten nearly anyone that night. Everything we tried worked. I don’t think it was down to lack of pressure from Cork ‘cos even when we’ve hammered lower division teams before we’ve not looked like that.