Sean O'Brien: 'To get 40 minutes under my belt and to get through it feeling good is very good for me'

RETURN FROM INJURY: Sean O'Brien returned from injury to play up to 40 minutes for Munster. Pic: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile

It made for a bittersweet comeback as Munster back Sean O’Brien returned from a four-month injury lay-off with a try but came out on the wrong end of a damaging URC 34-28 defeat at home to Edinburgh.

Munster’s hopes of securing a home quarter-final draw in the end of season play-offs took a serious blow on Friday night at Virgin Media Park as Edinburgh ran in five tries to deliver a first home league defeat in Cork since the same club managed it in November 2019.

O’Brien’s 80th minute try off the bench brought some solace as Munster rallied from a 29-7 half-time deficit to earn both try and losing bonus points but their performance was described as “way off” by interim head coach Ian Costello and the second-half replacement could not disagree despite his personal excitement to return from a leg injury which had sidelined the centre/wing since October.

The former Connacht and Exeter Chiefs player, who last month signed a new two-year contract to keep him at Munster until the end of the 2026-27 season following a summer 2023 return to Ireland from the English Premiership, had replaced Calvin Nash at half-time on Friday night after the Ireland wing sustained a knock to his chest.

“Personally it was really good to be back,” O’Brien said. “It’s been just over four months now since my last game so even for confidence on the couple of injuries I had, to get 40 minutes under my belt and to get through it feeling good is very good for me.

“But from a team perspective it is obviously very disappointing. We came out with a gameplan and just didn't execute it and let ourselves down in a lot of areas, the contact area in particular. Yeah disappointing, but ultimately got two points at the end of the day so at least we get to leave with something.” That said, O’Brien described the dressing-room mood as “very down”.

“When you lose at home it is never good, especially when you don't play well. I think if you play well and you are beaten by a better team it's tough, but when you don't play well and you know you have so much more in ye as a group it is a very tough one to take. It is disappointing more than anything else.” 

With only six games remaining in the regular season before the play-offs get under way at the end of May, Munster are running out of fixtures to break into the top-four positions on the URC table which guarantee a home draw for the last eight and O’Brien recognised the added the importance of achieving that goal given last week’s announcements that Ireland Test centurions Conor Murray and Peter O’Mahony would be leaving the province at the end of the campaign with the final games of the current Six Nations campaign this month their last appearances in the green jersey.

“I think if there are two lads who deserve to finish up their Munster careers with silverware it is definitely them two,” O’Brien said. “Just the leaders that the two of them are. When they speak up in a meeting everyone is listening and reacting to what they are saying.

“They will be massive losses for the club like, they have been here for 10, 15 years, have a rake of caps and they are always there for the big games. It will be a massive loss for us and a big change but a good opportunity for other lads to step up, especially as leaders as well.”

The departures, Murray to a club overseas and O’Mahony into retirement, will not be the only changes at Munster this summer with New Zealander Clayton McMillan announced last week as the new boss for next season following the conclusion of his tenure as Chiefs head coach. O’Brien said he had heard only good things about McMillan, including from Munster team-mates and former Chiefs players Alex Nankivell and John Ryan.

“I think it will be good in terms of the coaching we already have in the group at the minute is world class. I think being able to bring in another head coach with his calibre will be massive for us.

“I have heard nothing but good things about him. I know a few lads who would have played with the Chiefs obviously, Nanks and John Ryan, but a few lads I played with in England would have played under him in New Zealand and they all have very good things to say about him. It will be interesting, but we are looking to finish out this season strong before anything like that happens. Hopefully he is coming into a club that is after winning a bit of silverware.”