Sean O'Brien...

[Sosume]

...exactly how old is he?
Have his DOB in the programs as 1982. Is that correct?

[Jamie Beastlip]

he's 23 born in 1987

[ceemec]

Decent interview with the man from the weekend...hard not to like the bloke:

Carlow's first Irish rugby international of the modern era will let his rugby do the talking on his Six Nations debut in Italy on Saturday

Rome provides a fittingly gladiatorial backdrop next Saturday, when Sean O’Brien makes his first Six Nations start — though his heroic qualities don’t necessarily require a grand setting. Leinster teammates first noticed them in leafy Hertfordshire two seasons ago, when Leinster A played Saracens A at Old Albanians RFC.

That day, O’Brien was an innocent bystander when a row broke out, only to be drawn centre-stage by Dan Scarborough, the former England wing. Perhaps keen to impress his forwards, Scarborough hurtled towards the 21-year-old, grabbed him by the throat and advised him, with great originality, to “get off back to Ireland, Paddy, and eat some spuds.”

Sitting in the Ireland team hotel in Limerick last Tuesday, O'Brien smiled at the memory of his response: “I told him, ‘I’ll show you spuds.’ And then I hit him on the jaw with a right hook, so I did.”

Quite a ‘punch-line’ that, and all the more memorable for being delivered in a broad Tullow accent. This is one of the beauties of Sean O’Brien, up there alongside his uncanny ability to appear unannounced on a scrum-half’s shoulder, running at a fair lick for such a lump of a lad: his sentences never end with that annoying mid-Atlantic upward inflection? No, Carlow’s first Irish rugby international of the modern era sounds like, well, someone from Carlow.

While he plays ball for a living, O’Brien knows what it is to spend a day on a tractor, cutting silage. His emergence is perfectly timed for Leinster’s marketing staff, who are acutely aware of the need to promote the brand beyond south Dublin and into the province’s more far-flung corners. Naturally, he made an appearance on their behalf at the National Ploughing Championships in Athy last September.

So while he does a more than passable impersonation of Jamie Heaslip on the pitch, he is an entirely different animal off it — no espressos, catch phrases, body-piercing, or Twitter account. “I don’t tweet, no,” he says. “And I won’t be, either.”

He wouldn’t have the time. What he does have is phenomenal energy and generosity, also a sharp entrepreneurial sense. Last summer, having already helped Tullow’s Gaelic footballers with their fitness training, O’Brien set up fitness boot camps for all-comers in Carlow town. Sixty-five people turned up to the first eight-week course, 115 to the second. Soon he had army pals delegated to run similar camps in Portlaoise and Newbridge.

Meanwhile, he has 25 suckling cows on the family farm two miles outside Tullow. “They’re Belgian Blues,” he says, by way of clarification. “I actually sold a few of them recently. I’ll let my father look after them now, ‘cause they’re a full-time job. But myself and John Hayes (Munster’s resident farmer) are always talking about cattle and stuff.”

Other schemes are still on the go. A few weeks back, he placed a note on the wall in the Leinster dressing room offering home-made seeded bread, baked by his granny, Evelyn O’Toole. “It’s lovely, so it is,” he says. “I brought up 25 loaves the next day and now I have to bring them every week. It’s €3 for the seeded bread — but they’re very big loaves.”

The really impressive bit is that he still finds time to train Tullow RFC’s first XV, who are on a winning streak in Leinster League Division 1B, though underdogs in a south-east derby in Enniscorthy this afternoon. O’Brien will be there, naturally.

His father played in a Tullow pack including five other O’Briens at one stage in the 1980s. “There was the O’Briens of the Bog Lane — that’s us — and then there was the O’Briens of The Hollow,” explains O’Brien junior. They could always tell he had leadership capabilities. Even when he moved to Dublin a few years back, for a sports management degree in UCD and a place in the Leinster Academy, the club asked him if he’d help coach the first XV even though he was only 20.

“I was asked to give a hand, like,” he says, “but I’d rather be involved in something fully than just going down every now and again, y’know? The first thing I did was call a players’ meeting at the start of the season. I said to them: ‘Look, I’m a lot younger than most of you. All I want to do is to try and develop different skills if I can. I’ve great respect for you and I expect the same in return.’”

It seems to have worked. Two seasons on, he’s still making the 100-mile trip from Dublin at least once a week and sometimes further on Sundays, which says as much about O’Brien’s generosity as about the strength of his roots in the local community. “Sean O’Brien is Tullow Rugby Club,” says club president, PJ Haskins. “He’s a good country lad, in that he couldn’t say no to anyone. Whether it was doing something on the farm or helping out with a team, he’d be there for you.”

As a budding coach, it’s no surprise he has a rapport with Joe Schmidt, who described him recently as a “rough diamond”, and who was understandably delighted when he ignored offers from England and France to sign a contract that will keep him with Leinster until 2015 at least. With every Heineken Cup man-of-the-match award — three during the pool stages — his stock kept rising.

He obviously made an early impression on Schmidt, who made O'Brien captain for a pre-season game against Wasps. The admiration is mutual. O’Brien’s development into a more sophisticated player isn’t just down to the natural maturing process. He puts his increased speed down to plyometrics, leg-weights and sled-pulling. The improved skills and decision-making must have something to do with the advice he’s receiving from Schmidt and his technical men.

Leinster’s training has changed in that there are fewer drills, and more games, all designed to replicate match situations. “It’s more specific to the game, the way Joe coaches,” says O'Brien. “It is something everyone is enjoying, having those little games. They’re serious in one way but they’re good for your head, like. They put you in different situations that you’ll probably get on the pitch.

“I used to look to run over a fella and hurt him than anything else. That was completely my thing, until I came into the Academy. You soon change when you’re getting smashed back on your arse. Now I’m hitting holes and looking for good lines. My handling is something I’ve been trying to develop, and my linking with the backs. A couple of years ago, I might have tried to off-load but it probably wouldn’t have come off. Now, I’d be confident off-loading in any situation." Getting a close-up on Italy’s skipper Sergio Parisse next Saturday should enhance his development further. He says he is completely comfortable at No 8, having played there most of the way up.

While he is an inch or two smaller than Heaslip, and a less obvious lineout target, you could argue he is most effective at the back of the scrum. When everyone is fit, the selection of the Ireland back row will be intriguing.

Whatever happens, O’Brien’s Tullow-ness will be undimmed. The town’s image suffered badly last year when RTE aired a documentary which depicted the men-folk as lushes and layabouts. He adores the place and regales his Leinster teammates with all the local mythologies.

They love to hear about one Lar Nail, whose genius is the enormity of his appetite for food. “Some man to eat, so he is,” says O’Brien, maybe thickening the accent for effect. “Lar Nail’s such a good man to eat that he brings a flask of tea and a basket of sandwiches to bed with him, so he does.”

O’Brien’s own narrative promises to extend some way beyond the parish limits.

[Hickiefan]

Interesting piece but I don't understand why one player can't be celebrated without taking digs at others. Celebrate the differences!

[Armchair]

Was Jackman not from Co. Carlow ?

[Leinsterman]

I read it in the paper on Sunday, so I did.

[Dave Cahill]

Was Jackman not from Co. Carlow ?

That is subject to a border dispute that makes India vs Pakistan look like a mild tiff!

[Logorrhea]

Were the digs at Heaslip? Jesus your a sensitive soul Jamie

[Donny B.]

I love the idea of him selling his grannies seeded Bread in the dressing room!

[Leinster Lout]

He did one of those sky sports type folding of the arms intros for against the head there...You wouldn't argue with the man.

[nelly the elephant]

Was Jackman not from Co. Carlow ?

That is subject to a border dispute that makes India vs Pakistan look like a mild tiff!

Indeed......got it from the great man himself at his book launch that he is from Coolkenno and therefore a Wicklowman.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I read it in the paper on Sunday, so I did.

That kind of thing really bugged in the interview. I felt like O'Reilly was trying to say "look!! Leinster have a real life country boy!!"

I wonder if it'd had been a player from south Dublin who said "like" a lot would that have been included in all the quotes? Nothing against O'Brien but I really didn't like the journalism.

[janeymac08]

I read it in the paper on Sunday, so I did.

That kind of thing really bugged in the interview. I felt like O'Reilly was trying to say "look!! Leinster have a real life country boy!!"

I wonder if it'd had been a player from south Dublin who said "like" a lot would that have been included in all the quotes? Nothing against O'Brien but I really didn't like the journalism.

I think your gripe should be with Leinster Rugby - ffs they are sending him to represent Leinster Rugby at the Ploughing Championships!

[fourthirtythree]

I read it in the paper on Sunday, so I did.

That kind of thing really bugged in the interview. I felt like O'Reilly was trying to say "look!! Leinster have a real life country boy!!"

I wonder if it'd had been a player from south Dublin who said "like" a lot would that have been included in all the quotes? Nothing against O'Brien but I really didn't like the journalism.

I think your gripe should be with Leinster Rugby - ffs they are sending him to represent Leinster Rugby at the Ploughing Championships!

Half the squad were there at different stages.

[Scott]

I have read that '‘I’ll show you spuds' line/story a few times over the last while & each time it has me in stitches

[simplythebest]

That kind of thing really bugged in the interview. I felt like O'Reilly was trying to say "look!! Leinster have a real life country boy!!"

I wonder if it'd had been a player from south Dublin who said "like" a lot would that have been included in all the quotes? Nothing against O'Brien but I really didn't like the journalism.

I think your gripe should be with Leinster Rugby - ffs they are sending him to represent Leinster Rugby at the Ploughing Championships!

Half the squad were there at different stages.

I'm all in favour of that type of Marketing & PR. I very much welcome Leinster Rugby being an all encompassing club. I think it's a challange well worth putting the effort into. I thought Sean's piece read very well.

[sally]

I love Leinster and by God is it refreshing to read an interview like that from an-honest-to-goodness culchie. Whether you like it or not there is a frappachino element to Leinster that turns off fellow provincials and the young O'Brien fella is a perfect antidote to that. Up Carlow!

[johng]

I love Leinster and by God is it refreshing to read an interview like that from an-honest-to-goodness culchie. Whether you like it or not there is a frappachino element to Leinster that turns off fellow provincials and the young O'Brien fella is a perfect antidote to that. Up Carlow!

I love Sean O'Brien. I love his attitude. I love the way he plays the game. I love him running round guys. I love him running through guys. I love him running over guys. I love any combination of the above. I love the way he has developed his hands and offloading.
I love the fact that he is from Carlow too. And I love how down to earth he is. You can't have enough players like that.

I will say though. They overdid it a little bit. We got it after a few paragraphs. They kept on and on, and not a sentence lacked a reference to his down home good old country ladness.

[[Jackass]]

SO'B is a breath of fresh air and a great Leinster man. Really enjoyed his interview.

[QBer]

Speaking as an ex-pat Dub living in Carlow, he certainly has boosted the local interest in Leinster rugby. He even runs a "boot camp" in Carlow RFC to keep us fit, so he does.