The Tullow talent
THERE’s a revealing tale that is verifiable through reliable witness account about Sean O’Brien and his elevation to Leinster’s senior squad.
Three years ago, a Leinster A selection visited their Saracens counterparts for a pre-season friendly. English international Dan Scarbrough didn’t see it as that, however, grabbing O’Brien by the throat with an accompanying invite to “Fuck off back to Ireland and eat your potatoes”. An intimidating scenario for most youngsters, but not for Carlow’s O’Brien: “I’ll give ya spuds,” he said, and promptly knocked the winger out.
It’s the Leinster flanker in a nutshell. There’s no fancy sidesteps, coloured boots or sports cars for the latest superstar of Irish rugby. O’Brien knows exactly where he is and, more importantly, where he has come from.
The day after Ireland’s recent Six Nations victory over England, he was on the sideline in Naas in a coaching role with his club, Tullow, for their Gale Cup U20 final against Wanderers. “He’s worth five points to us on the sideline at every game,” says club president PJ Haskins. “He’s a breath of fresh air around the club too. People are saying from opposition clubs, ‘God, ye must appreciate Sean’. We see him as he is, a country fella.”
O’Brien’s rapid success has been mirrored by his junior club. As forwards coach, he has overseen their promotions from Leinster League Division 3 to 1A and a Towns Cup final appearance to boot.
He’s a wrecking ball that’s 10 years in the making though. Spotted when he was just 12 at a Community Games final, Leinster’s Youth Development Officers (YDOs) followed his career closely and brought him up to Dublin as soon as they could. When he was 18 he went to UCD and from there to the Leinster Academy.
“He stood out at underage,” says Haskins. “The Bruff team that got to the AIL final was the one that beat Sean’s Tullow side in the Community Games final. Bruff kept that team together the whole way up and are a senior team now. Sean would have played against them in the final. Leinster had this YDO development started when Sean was 12 or 13 and he was spotted there.
“They were looking for players outside of the Pale and they found that with Sean. There were other lads up there from New Ross and places like that but Bernard Jackman would have been pushing the issue as well, to be fair.”
Jackman kept O’Brien in the coaches’ minds. He had a soft spot for the Ardristan youngster who lived just 20 minutes away from the Jackman homestead in Coolkenno.
Not that Sean needed a minder. In 2007 he was part of an U20 Grand Slam winning team but it was nice to have another country man there to take care of him. O’Brien followed Jackman to Clontarf where they have since both become coaches. But he never forgot home.
An avid GAA follower, he’s often seen in Dr Cullen Park on quiet Sunday evenings bearing the battle scars from the day before. Sometimes the local radio station asks him for an interview at half-time. He obliges because it’s his home but prefers to talk about the football or hurling. He’s earned that right.
The same year he was breaking through to the Leinster starting team he took charge of the strength and conditioning training for Carlow GAA club, Kilbride’s. Having only come up from intermediate level they were expected to struggle but with O’Brien starting to take training sessions too they blossomed and last year reached the county quarter-finals.
“He brought something different,” said former manager Anthony Curry. “We got to see what was being done at the highest level and the lads fed off that. He has a fantastic interest. He’s a down to earth lad and sound as a pound as well. I saw him here watching our first league match last week after the England game.
“He was a great help to us and he showed us a lot of things we hadn’t seen before. In the first year I was involved with Kilbride he played with the Fighting Cocks and we played them. He was a young chap at the time but played full-back. He was the best man on the field that day. He came up the field and created havoc. He was fairly talented.”
Having gone to school or played on Carlow U14 and U16 teams with most of the current crop he could have gone down that route. His club could have used him, and in a county where GAA is the biggest sport he would have been a star.
Brendan Murphy, who also went to Tullow Community School, turned down lucrative Aussie Rules and Leinster rugby careers to play with his club and county. O’Brien was focused on one thing, though, and that was playing rugby with his province.
“HE’D have good friends from the GAA,” says Haskins. “John Murphy played with Grange and Carlow before he moved clubs to St Sylvesters in Dublin. Him and Sean are friendly. John went to play rugby with Blackrock but didn’t like rugby and preferred the GAA. Sean wouldn’t mind me saying this, but John was a better player. Sean just stuck at it. John just wanted the GAA and he stuck at that. The GAA and the rugby work so well together. People don’t understand that.”
But O’Brien is also working hard off the pitch. Few know that he sells his mother’s bread to his Leinster foodie colleagues at €3 a pop, netting around €60 a week for his mum. He also does his bit for various fund-raising campaigns. Tullow will be hosting their Rose of Tralee competition soon, the biggest fundraiser of the year, and O’Brien will be there, selling raffle tickets and helping organise the event.
“We had a race night recently too and he sold 20 tickets to the Irish team,” says Haskins. “Paul O’Connell, Luke Fitzgerald and all those lads bought horses for it. It has been said and spoken about before, if every other Irish player went out to their club on a Sunday morning and got down to grassroots and promoted rugby, where would we be?
“In the past, there were three or four rugby teams in every club but now there’s only a first and second team. You’ve only 30 players playing rugby. Years ago you could have had 60 lads playing rugby.”
In addressing this problem, Tullow created a five-year plan to reverse the decline, with O’Brien at its promotional and coaching core. Now in its last year, and with a population of 3,500 to draw from, there are talks of re-establishing a thirds team while women’s rugby has also taken off.
The club is a family affair for the barreling international back row. O’Brien’s sister Alex plays on their senior side and manages the U13s and U15s. His brother Willie is the senior full-back. His father Cas is an ever-present. Everyone is playing off the same hymn sheet and for Haskins, that’s down to one man.
“He’s met with all our coaches and he has them all doing the same drills from youth up. The foundations are very good.”
Some day he might even play for the club again. Haskins hopes O’Brien’s professional career will last at least another decade but hasn’t ruled out the possibility of seeing him line out for Tullow one last time.
“We hope he’ll play for Leinster for another 10 years and then maybe come back to Tullow, injury-free, and finish out his career with us and coach the team full-time. Our next step is to go back out into the community and he’ll be a big part in that. He’ll also be a big part of the club for the next 10 years.
“He’ll come back. He was hurting after the Welsh game and we all knew it. He doesn’t like losing. That comes from the way they’re bred in Leinster. He expects the same from Tullow as what he puts in. He’ll expect the Tullow players to respect the no-drinking policy and total discipline and professionalism on the field. All those things build us up as a club to where we are. He gives everything 150% and expects that back too.”
He may even have a GAA future too. Somehow, given his history, you wouldn’t rule it out.
AT just 24 it’s a bit early to contemplate a coaching career but Sean O’Brien is building up an impressive CV.
At 19 he took over Tullow RFC’s forwards coach job from Bernard Jackman and helped them to back-to-back Leinster League promotions.
At 20 he became strength and conditioning coach with GAA football club Kilbride and helped them into the county quarter-final for the first time last year.
Last year he was Clontarf U21s coach when they went on an unbeaten run and only to lose out to Blackrock for JP Flanagan honours.
Not a bad start to his coaching career. Watch this space.
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