I must learn from World Cup mistake, says positive Sean O’Brien

It is almost four months since Sean O’Brien was ruled out of Ireland’s World Cup quarter-final against Argentina, a retaliatory swing at Pascal Papé of France leading to his suspension for a knockout game in which Ireland were furthered hampered by injuries.

Sunday’s visit to Dublin of Wales on the opening weekend of the 2016 Six Nations will therefore provide O’Brien with the first opportunity to wear a green shirt since then, but he isn’t framing the occasion according to what happened last October.

“I don’t know if I’m more revved up, but I certainly learned from that match to take those situations out of my game and, you know, not react the way I did,” said O’Brien yesterday.

“But it’s a different tournament now and one which I’m really looking forward to getting involved in.

“I just want to leave that [suspension] behind and move on and look forward to what’s ahead of us.”

There was no outpouring of remorse yesterday, no wistful reminiscing of what might have been.

He spoke merely of business as usual and how he tried to drive standards in training when asked about how he felt the week before that Pumas game.

No tears. Not then, not now.

“Well, I did what I did, but there’s no point in me being hard on myself now. I need to learn from it and kick on. It happened and things happen in games and it’s something I’ve said I wasn’t that proud of at the time, but I can’t keep kicking myself over it.”

O’Brien’s absence and that of injured colleagues such as Paul O’Connell and Peter O’Mahony clearly hurt Ireland against the South Americans but the size and nature of the defeat meant there was no free pass for the team and Joe Schmidt in the subsequent court of public opinion.

Ireland’s notoriously tight defence was splintered time and again by the Pumas and, though Schmidt has taken over the defensive portfolio from Les Kiss, O’Brien doesn’t envisage any great changes to the ways in which the Six Nations champions will stand sentry.

Similarly upbeat notes were sounded about the abilities of those players brought in to the current squad in place of absent key performers such as O’Mahony, Iain Henderson, and Tommy Bowe, though there is another salient reason why everyone will have to step up: For 16 years, Irish squads have been fashioned by the examples and attitudes of O’Connell and/or Brian O’Driscoll. This marks the first page in a new chapter for a national side that requires lieutenants of old to take on the mantle of generals.

O’Brien is among those.

Mentioned recently as a possible successor to O’Connell as captain, he expressed his delight yesterday in the choice of Rory Best for the honour, though he disagreed with the assertion that the post-BOD and POC generation now have a point to make.

“I don’t know if we have something to prove but for every player within this environment they want to be the best that they can be and wherever that leads us it leads us. The bigger picture is fitting into this team and doing what you can for the players around you. That’s been the case the last few years and nothing is going to change that now.

“Players come and go and, as everyone knows, another few went last year. You just have to move on, get back down to work, and kick on.”

Among the newbies to come into the reckoning this year are Munster back row and captain CJ Stander and Ulster centre Stuart McCloskey. Add and subtract the ins and the outs and O’Brien believes the talent pool is deeper now than when Schmidt took the reigns.

“Yeah, it’s a very exciting place to be,” he agreed.

“There is a lot of talent in the squad, especially with the younger guys who are after coming in and have been playing regularly with their provinces this year.

“They have really shown up well and performed week in, week out. At this level then, giving them that little bit of experience will help them develop a bit quicker and, going forward, we’re going to be in a really good place.”

O’Brien has been impressed by Stander: “He’s fitted in very well, he’s been good and he’s listened and asked a lot of questions. It’s good to have him in the squad and it’s going well. He’s got a bit of everything to his game. He’s a very skilful player. He’s one of the leaders down in Munster and it’s the same here. He’s talking and communicating on the field and he’s not too shy about things. It’s nice to have a fresh voice around the place too.”