Leinster's Tommy O'Brien ready to face another of France's flying wings

O'Brien's season experiences leave him with a useful perspective as Leinster face Toulon in Saturday’s Champions Cup semi-final.

Tommy O'Brien during a Leinster Rugby squad training session. Pic: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile

Tommy O’Brien doesn’t need any reminding about lightning-fast French wingers.

It’s three months since the Leinster back lined up opposite Louis Bielle-Bierrey at the Stade de France and found himself on the floor and looking on as the Bordeaux-Begles dangerman zipped over for scores at the start of both halves.

O’Brien wasn‘t caught napping. 

Both tries emanated from broken play and he found himself pulled infield to make tackles on Yoram Moefana and then Thomas Ramos that weren't enough to prevent ‘LBB’ providing the finishing touches.

A difficult night for Ireland ended for him after just 49 minutes, but he scored three times himself against England and Scotland later in the Championship. All of which leaves him with a useful perspective as Leinster face Toulon in Saturday’s Champions Cup semi-final.

Gael Dréan only managed one run in the Six Nations but that’s a measure of French strength in depth out wide rather than any slight on a 25-year-old who scored against Italy and is something of a try machine having recorded seven in six European games already.

“I know from playing France in the Six Nations that they're unbelievably clinical when they get a chance, they're real poachers. Dréan, Bielle-Biarrey; they're not the biggest, but they're unbelievably quick and they know that when they get the opportunity they are very good in those quick, short bursts, arch finishers.

“That might be what they're looking for from them, that that's their primary role. Irish teams sometimes look for each player to do a lot of different things and be able to kind of do everything. The French wingers, maybe you are the try-scorer, the finisher, and they're very good at it.” 

Dréan has started every game in the competition for Toulon. The other wing role has been taken by either the 21-year-old Matthis Ferté or the Fijian Seta Tuicuvu. 

There’s class elsewhere in that back line but we’ll stick with the wide men here.

Bath will be no mugs in Sunday's semi-final but the smart money sits on Bordeaux-Begles returning to the final having claimed their first title last season. 

That would likely mean another run against Bielle-Biarrey for O'Brien in the event that Leinster can make it to Bilbao.

That’s no gimme either, but facing Dréan would be valuable if that were to happen.

“They're both unbelievably quick, both have very good attacking kicking games. Both Bielle-Biarray and Dréan, if the full-back is closing on them they're happy to put it on their foot and execute the kicks very well.

“Dréan scored a lovely one against Munster. There's very little space and time to execute some of those kicks. They tend to do them very well under pressure. It doesn't happen by accident. I'm sure they practice it a lot.” 

The worry with Leinster is that they’ve been gettable on the outside.

We’ve seen as much all season and not least in the most recent batch of games. The personnel has changed but the cracks have been consistent with the three tries conceded in 10 minutes against Ulster, all down the right side, the most obvious manifestation.

Benetton got plenty of reward in attack last week, too, and everyone remembers how it was at this stage of the season last year when Northampton Saints filleted a Jacques Nienaber defence that had held Harlequins and Glasgow scoreless in the two previous rounds.

The spiel from Leinster is that this is all fixable.

"Definitely,” said O’Brien. “You want to be putting skillsets under pressure and going in between Irish systems and Leinster systems there can be a bit of a disconnect. But, the longer we're in here...

“We saw against Ulster, the first-half was probably one of the best defensive performances we've had of the year.

“We think we're getting close to it, but obviously it wasn't as good at the weekend and we're hoping that we can marry it all together and put a proper performance together this week.” 

This is the thing. Leinster have played some sublime rugby at times but they are miles off putting a complete performance together. 

The arrival on shore of an in-form Top 14 side that is 80 minutes from a European decider is cause for concern.

“They've got some serious star power, some serious names. Toulon is obviously huge in this competition. Some French clubs maybe prefer the Top 14 whereas we know Toulon absolutely love this competition.

“They've given it their all and their fans travel unbelievably as well. So we'd hope that maybe this Saturday can be a serious atmosphere, a serious game, and exactly what Champions Cup and European rugby is like.”