Really lads, there is no place like home

IN financing the contract that keeps Sean O’Brien at Leinster and with Ireland for at least two more years, the IRFU has cleverly looked beyond the euro signs and the zeros.

O’Brien is a once-off, because of his age, potential and market appeal, a test case for the resolve and the ambition of the union and for the type of game it wants to showcase at home.

Seanie is a home boy, the pride of Carlow. He’s rock star material down there. I won’t say he has single-handedly made Leinster what they are, but is, in microcosm, the reason the province are such a powerful and well-resourced organisation these days.