SEAN O’BRIEN IS a man who will never turn his back on the Tullow roots he holds so dearly.
The Leinster and Ireland back row has constantly stayed in touch with his family and farm back in County Carlow throughout his rise to international rugby renown, making regular visits to their herd of Belgian Blue cattle or to help out with the baling.
O’Brien captained Ireland last weekend in Dublin.
That won’t change, but the visits have become a little less spontaneous over the last three or four years as O’Brien’s approach to ensuring he is in peak condition has matured.
While the 28-year-old made a notable impact on the 2011 World Cup, his mindset towards preparation has transformed in the seasons that have followed.
Earlier this year, Ronan O’Gara revealed to 2FM’s Game On that O’Brien had been a regular recipient of Ireland’s ‘Barry Crocker award’ at RWC2011, that being the honour handed to the worst trainer.
Today’s version of Sean O’Brien is far more diligent in his application on the training pitch and off it. Even if that means the Belgian Blues are that little lonelier.
“I’m way more professional. I was probably far too relaxed about preparing for games in terms of if I wanted to go down home the day before a game I would. Now, I never would.
“I don’t want to be in the car driving for an hour and an hour the next day coming back. It was probably a little immature on my part, thinking I could get away with that type of thing. Maybe I did get away with it for a while.
“Eventually, as you get older, you get cuter and you think ‘I need to be as fresh as I can be.’ You stop doing those things, you may even stop doing something for a charity say. It could be anything like that.
Leinster’s new home and away kits were launched yesterday. Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO
“You just have get your body in the best place possible for the weekend.”
O’Brien’s horrible experiences with his shoulder injuries in the last two years – he missed 14 months of action due to two bouts of surgery – have fed into his more focused approach to recovery, downtime, training and everything else that goes into producing performances when it counts.
“It does play a part,” said O’Brien. “I suppose having had the serious injuries I’ve had over the last couple of years you do want to look after yourself.
O’Brien looked to be in promising condition last weekend as he captained Ireland to a scrappy win over Scotland in Dublin, though he admits there is more work to do in the next month before the World Cup arrives.
If the best players in the world prepare with excellence, then September and October provide O’Brien with an opportunity to underline his continuing status as part of that elite group.
The signs from the ‘Tullow Tank’ were encouraging around the breakdown against the Scots, although the likes of Sam Warburton will give Ireland fewer opportunities there when Wales come to visit on 29 August.
O’Brien points to missed tackles and a lack of accuracy as disappointments in the win over the Scots and says that head coach Joe Schmidt hasn’t lost his habit of calling out players for those kind of errors.