Eager Sean O’Brien ready to ‘hit the ground running’ ahead of World Cup

Sean O’Brien believes a rare chance to bank a full pre-season will allow him hit the ground running when Ireland launch their World Cup bid with an opening pool game against Canada in Cardiff in September.

The Leinster flanker was one of the 45 names included in the preliminary squad released by the IRFU yesterday evening and one which will be whittled down to 31 before the team complete the last of their warm-up fixtures and decamp to the UK.

O’Brien is one of those players certain to travel and, more than that, start the key games having swatted aside any suggestion that a run of injuries in recent seasons — a shoulder issue being of particular concern — might hold him back.

“No, I’m looking forward to a good pre-season this year, I haven’t had one for three years. It’s the first year I’m fresh and ready to go. It’s a big seven or eight weeks and we can rock into games hopefully and hit the ground running.”

Ireland will be the last of the ‘home’ nations to punch in.

Scotland are already in the Pyrenees being flogged by the French military, England are ensconced in their Pennyhill Park base since Monday and Wales have been on duty since June 15.

Warren Gatland has included nine uncapped players in his initial squad. Schmidt has drafted in just two – Leinster’s Tadhg Furlong and Jack Conan – though 28 of those included played no part in 2011 when Ireland reached the last eight in New Zealand.

Conan backed up an impressive breakthrough campaign with Leinster in Tbilisi this month where Emerging Ireland emerged victorious while Rob Herring and Noel Reid will join him in Carton House when the team congregate this Sunday after their own prominent roles in Georgia.

Rhys Ruddock, the man who captained the side in Eastern Europe until he fractured an arm, was less fortunate, with Schmidt making particular mention of an omission which is made up for by the return of fellow flanker Chris Henry for the first time since his heart scare last November.

Squads of the size revealed yesterday rarely make for considerable controversy, though among the more notable omissions was Ian Keatley who, in Jonathan Sexton’s absence, was Ireland’s starting out-half when they began their Six Nations campaign in Italy last February.

Club form towards the end of the season won’t have helped his candidacy. Neither will the range of options Schmidt had elsewhere at 10 and, in truth, there were few enough calls made that could be coined as contentious. Staying in the squad is everyone’s next objective .Even O’Brien admitted to being a “bit nervous”, not because of any doubts about making the final cut, but because of the realisation that the World Cup is finally upon them and the magnitude that entails.

“Absolutely, yeah,” he responded when asked if Ireland can harbour realistic ambitions of claiming the Webb Ellis trophy which was on display yesterday when TV3 launched an autumn schedule which includes their coverage of the Rugby World Cup. The Tullow man is one of 17 players among the 45 who appeared at the 2011 tournament when the elation and confidence ingrained with the victory over Australia was lost with the quarter-final loss to Wales.

Such experiences will be vital, O’Brien believes.

Individual and collective.

“It gives us the experience of what it is like at the World Cup. We were in the quarter-finals last time and it wasn’t good enough.

“If we can play to there again, and with the people we have and the squad, we can move forward this time around.”

Top their pool again this time and they are likely to be offered the chance to avenge their 2007 tribulations against Argentina and avoid New Zealand until a possible final. Finish second and the All Blacks will await in the last eight.

Permutations for another day. “I’d rather play whoever we get,” said O’Brien with a shrug. “You have to win all your games to put yourself in a good position. We won’t be looking too far ahead. We’ll be looking to start off in the first pool game and kick off from there.”