O’Brien hopes to transform ambition into silverware

At the time, he was one of Ireland’s own harshest critics.

Distance has brought some calm for Sean O’Brien, but that New Zealand defeat still rankles.

He found some solace in Ireland’s ability to play with such intensity and accuracy, and whip themselves into enough of a controlled frenzy to lead the world champions by 19 points in the first half back in November.

But having seen the All Blacks claw their way back and snatch it with the clock in the red, O’Brien’s frustration couldn’t be masked. Add in the loss in the Aviva to Northampton and his injury on Saturday night which means he will miss a large part of the next two months and you can almost sense a red mist descending. But when he speaks of Ireland the prime cause he feels they need to address is to trust each other in those crucial final minutes, to believe in themselves going forward and take “a long, hard look at ourselves”.

Rob Kearney admitted heading out for a walk around Dublin four or five days later and almost getting lost, as his mind struggled to process the galling nature of defeat. But O’Brien says he is ready to consign it to the past.

“The pain has eased now, yeah. You have to move on and be professional, you don’t win every day, but that was definitely one that got away from us and it hurt for a week or two,” he says.

“You have to put it to one side quite quickly, though; you can’t dwell on these things or you’d drive yourself mad. It’s more about moving on and taking the good out of it, to ensure we do better the next time.”

Tempering the positive vibes from that excellent performance was the feeling that Ireland are still, maddeningly, consistently inconsistent. The gargantuan effort against New Zealand followed a much tamer showing in defeat to Australia, but the 30-cap back rower is sure Ireland can get their house in order.

“It will begin with playing with that intensity we showed against New Zealand — if we can sort our own stuff out, we know where we want to get to. We want to be one of the best teams in the world, get more consistent, build a bigger squad — there’s lots of things we can improve over the next couple of months.”

Joe Schmidt is the man who will facilitate such changes. The New Zealander has been key to O’Brien’s progression at Leinster and is now his coach at Irish level, which seems to suit the Carlowman. “The change was pretty seamless, a lot of us had worked with Joe before so it was just a case of the rest of the lads finding out what type of coach he is, and what he expects. He’s all about detail, and everyone knows that now; the Australia game in particular, there was a lot of focus on everyone getting their individual detail right. I think there’s exciting times ahead.”

The future looks bright but looking back over his 2013, O’Brien must have mixed feelings. The end of term report card for the majority of his teams reads “could have done better”, but the disappointments for Leinster and Ireland sandwiched a successful Lions tour, and there was also an Amlin Challenge Cup success to savour too.

On a personal level, O’Brien has been lauded for the maturing of his game this year. Having been named ERC Player of the Year in 2011 for his barnstorming performances in the Heineken Cup, there was a hint of second season syndrome as teams wised up to his ball-carrying threat and often cut it off at the source.

Since then, his link play has come on and his defence is as consistently powerful as they come, but the real progression has been made in his breakdown play. The previous school of thought was that O’Brien struggled at ruck time against groundhog number sevens, but the manner in which he lorded it over Justin Tipuric in Leinster’s Heineken Cup victory over the Ospreys back in October showed how much he has progressed, winning three clean turnovers before his highly-rated opposite number had even arrived at the ruck.

“I think I have improved in different aspects of my game,” is O’Brien’s generalist take on it. “It’s what I want to do, and what I should be doing; I’m 26, not at the end of my career, it’s still the start of it. Hopefully there’s lots more to come from my end but I’m pleased with where my game is going and how I’ve been playing of late, so I want to keep that momentum going.

“Was I targeted? Well, teams and individuals get to know you, and to be fair we do the same thing to their players, so it was no surprise. It’s about coming up with ways of exerting yourself in different ways around the field; if the opposition’s sole focus is on one person then there will be space for others.”

The now-defunct perception of O’Brien as a wrecking ball but perhaps lacking the other subtleties of an openside flanker’s role might have hurt him when it came to Lions selection, not to mention the fact that captain Sam Warburton was a direct rival. But injury to the Welshman saw O’Brien start the final test, a 41-16 drubbing of the Wallabies that secured the Lions a first series victory since 1997. O’Brien was predictably delighted to be part of history.

“It was brilliant to be part of a winning Test series, and to experience what the Lions is all about. It’s a huge part of my life now and I won’t forget it for a long time.

“Being involved in the Test team makes a difference to the experience. It was very frustrating not being included in the first two, but starting and winning that final game, and playing as well as we did, was very pleasing.

“You are of course fighting for positions with the guys around you and that competitive nature was evident throughout the tour. But the camaraderie was there too, and we enjoyed each other’s company.”

No more was the latter true than in victory; videos of O’Brien leading a chorus of Mumford and Sons’ I Will Wait in Sydney’s Cock and Bull bar have done the YouTube rounds. O’Brien isn’t as much of a social media vulture as some of his team-mates, but does enjoy giving and getting a good slagging on Twitter, where he has over 90,000 followers. The “meme war” between him and Brian O’Driscoll during the summer caused plenty of mirth. But it’s strictly banter, not attention-seeking, according to the man himself.

“I don’t think it’s for the public’s benefit, no. It’s just a bit of banter between the lads. We aren’t sitting beside each other typing these things out or anything! We just have a laugh with each other, it’s certainly entertaining anyway.

“It wouldn’t come into my head as to whether it was good for my public profile or not. If it is then so be it, but it’s not out there for that reason, it’s out there for a bit of banter, a laugh, and that’s it.”

With the not-so-serious stuff off the pitch in check, it’s the very serious matters on it that have O’Brien’s greatest focus heading into 2014. He’s vexed by Leinster’ s non-performance in the home defeat to Northampton, which had followed Matt O’Connor’s side’s trouncing of the same opposition at Franklin’s Gardens in the crucial back-to-back games.

No prizes for guessing which one O’Brien played in and which one he watched through his fingers from the sideline. What you learn quickly about O’Brien is that he his most direct when he’s irritated.

“We spoke about not letting that happen, but it did,” says O’Brien. “Now it’s about regrouping. We have to win our next two games regardless of what happens elsewhere. You said it yourself in your question, accuracy was the name of the game on the first day out, and it’s what we wanted to bring the last day too. But it just didn’t happen; it was sloppy, passes weren’t going to hand, we just weren’t sticking to the basics the way we did the week before. Just a lot of mistakes.”

Motivation therefore won’t be an issue in 2014, no matter who he plays for.

He has big plans and ambitions, although those relating to the Six Nations may yet be scuppered by a shoulder injury he suffered in action for Leinster against Ulster on Saturday night.

Further down the line, speculation has been rife of a move to France and O’Brien hasn’t ruled out playing abroad at some stage. He says there is “no panic” regarding his contract negotiations with Leinster but admits he will have to “make a selfish decision” when the time comes. In the interim, he will selfishly hunt silverware too.

“We’re in a competitive sport, I’ll be trying my best for each team I’m involved with. I want to win every competition I play in — I want to win the Rabo, the Heineken Cup, the Grand Slam. Everything.”