Sean O’Brien: No special welcome home for Joey Carbery

By Brendan O'Brien

The moment Leinster fought tooth and nail to avoid late last season, the one they dreaded, will come to pass this Saturday evening if Joey Carbery gets the nod to start for Munster against his old club at the Aviva Stadium.

All eyes will be on him if he does. Apart from Sean O’Brien’s.

O’Brien has years of experience when it comes to tackling players with whom he once shared a dressing-room in UCD or, back in the old days, at their digs in Riverview. Facing Carbery will be nothing new in that sense. Business as usual.

“Yeah. It’s just the way it is nowadays,” he said.

There is no fear that the Athy man will do an ‘inside job’. Trade secrets are in short supply between sides so familiar with one another and, anyway, Leinster’s attack has been tweaked fairly significantly under new backs coach Felipe Contepomi who walked in just as Carbery was walking out.

Carbery has had his moments, good and bad, across his five Munster appearances to date with his ability to break a defensive line from broken play a particularly noticeable feature. O’Brien could only laugh when asked how to deal with his old clubmate in just such a scenario.

“Don’t end up one on one with him,” he reasoned. “No forward wants to come up against any back one on one really, bar you have a touchline to work with.

It doesn’t matter. Everyone knows that he has great footwork, but you have to defend together. It’s like going out on any day. Nothing will change for us, we’ll stick to our defensive system and make sure none of their backs get a one on one hopefully.

Truth is, O’Brien is more vulnerable than he would like. The 54 minutes he banked away to Connacht last weekend were his first since April and the longest shift put in since a Champions Cup game against Exeter Chiefs back in mid-December.

He’s going to be rusty although he knows all to well how to pace himself after such an absence.

“There’s no point in going on and running around like a headless chicken,” he explained. “There’s a few bits and pieces that need to be tidied up, get them done first. I just keep talking and giving energy to the lads around us.”

Connacht were abrasive and difficult opponents in Galway and the task facing Leinster will hardly be any less intense this week regardless of Munster’s yo-yoing form. The back row area promises to be an engaging skirmish, one O’Brien will clearly relish.

The options available to both the Leinster and Ireland coaching teams in that department are breathtaking right now so it says everything about O’Brien’s abilities that he remains close to an automatic pick for Leo Cullen and Joe Schmidt when he is fully fit.

That’s how he sees it, too.

Ah yeah, you always back yourself, obviously. When I’m as fit as I can be and in as good form as I can be, I back myself to play. But, you know, there’s so many quality players as well, you have to be playing very consistently, you can’t have a bad game.

“There’s potentially eight or nine lads in the country who can play in the back row at international so that’s what you want. It’s healthy. It’s a massive competition here: Dan (Leavy) and Josh (van der Flier), Max (Deegan), Jack Conan, Rhys (Ruddock), they’re all international players.”

Figuring out who plays and who doesn’t this weekend is achingly difficult.

Leinster are assessing injuries to Jordan Larmour (hip) and Rhys Ruddock (also hip) this week while James Ryan has returned to training after return-to-play protocols. Jack McGrath is also training again after his knee injury and may be available.

Welcome news given the added complication that is a Champions Cup encounter at home to Wasps just six days after the Munster game.

“We’ll certainly have to manage the squad but I don’t want anyone to think that we’re not taking the game seriously because it’s entirely the opposite,” said senior coach Stuart Lancaster.

“A pretty strong Leinster will be put out and I imagine a pretty strong Munster team but I’d imagine both teams will have an eye on how many games they play this time of year with Europe coming around the corner as well.”