Sean O'Brien busy building case for defence ahead of Jacques Nienaber's arrival

O’Brien has worked under an eclectic and international mix of coaches at the club and he understands the benefit of building on that with a Springbok point of view

Contact skills coach Sean O'Brien and James Ryan during Leinster rugby squad training.

The sense of a club season gathering steam was inescapable around UCD yesterday as Leinster’s Ireland contingent, minus the retired Johnny Sexton, clocked back in for club duties just over three weeks on from that World Cup quarter-final agony in Paris.

Three of them had already returned to the coop seven days previously but the reappearance of the other 14 was a clear signal that, after three opening URC rounds, we are turning into a period of heavy lifting between interpros and the Champions Cup.