Shopping trip brings Seán a new armband
SEÁN O’Brien is glad of the difference a week makes. When Ireland did their captain’s run in Cardiff last weekend, he was spotted shopping at Kildare Village — hardly a distraction in keeping with his tough guy image.
Jump forward seven days and he became the focal point of the pre-game Aviva Stadium walk-through after being chosen as his country’s fourth captain of the Joe Schmidt era, following the trail of Paul O’Connell, Jamie Heaslip and Eoin Reddan.
He’s uncertain of some of the mechanics, such as does he revert to being just a back row when O’Connell makes his likely introduction from the bench?
‘Not sure,’ he admitted. ‘I presume I will… but maybe Paul will have something to say about that.’
O’Brien has always liked the cut of O’Connell’s jib as Ireland skipper. Always liked how Leo Cullen handled the responsibility at Leinster.
He’ll give the captaincy his own twist but one thing he won’t be caught up in is babysitting debut-making Jack Conan, who packs down at six with O’Brien (right) behind in the eight role.
‘I’ll do what I do usually, lead by example, do good drills, keep my distance, don’t do too much talking to the referee,’ he explained before l aying down the law for the 60th player capped by Schmidt, a 23-year-old who has started just a single European game with Leinster.
‘J ack knows the deal now, knows what is expected,’ warned O’Brien. ‘He knows there is nothing I can say to him only go out, enjoy it and play his own game.’
Just one step into their four-match warm-up series, Ireland are already in a very different terrain to when they last prepared for the World Cup. All f our practice outings were lost in 2011, with some big names playing themselves off the plane to New Zealand.
That problematic preparation, which left Ireland petrified about how they would perform at the finals, is something Les Kiss – the leading staff member from that campaign still on board – claims he didn’t speak much about to Schmidt before 2015’s preparations began.
However, after a week where Heaslip and O’Connell played up Ireland’s title chances, the assistant coach preached caution even though there is now an opportunity for them to head to these finals with an unbeaten warm-up series.
‘The visit back to the previous World Cup hasn’t been an open discussion in terms of what went wrong and what went right and all that stuff,’ explained Kiss. ‘We didn’t sit down and particularly talk about it in great detail.
‘We know what works for us in terms of our preparation schedule… and have just backed what we have done, backed what we think is the best preparation for this.
‘The results don’t guarantee anything next week and the week after. To write Wales off on that performance (last week) would be folly, and to make us the world champions would be folly.
‘I’m not sure if you just base how you are performing on winning only. If that is the only thing you base it on you can hijack yourself quickly,’ he continued. ‘I don’t know the figures, but I’m sure there are some people who went to the World Cup (in 2011) with four wins and didn’t deliver. I’ve seen teams, like last week, win well and then not deliver the following week.
‘Winning does build confidence and it’s nice to have it, but the underlying performance is what you must look at to ensure you stay on track and keep those Ws happening.’ Kiss is hopeful Gordon D’Arcy, the recalled veteran struggling to make the England 2015 cut, can give management a squad selection headache with a ‘W’ today. ‘Gordon knows what he has to deliver. He has been working with the younger guys and contributed very strongly in that area. He knows this is a team game and that wisdom will serve him well.’