RUGBY: JOHNNY WATTERSONmeets the dynamic flanker who manages to combine ambition with patience as he endeavours to establish himself with Ireland

EAGER, DETERMINED to make a point. Seán O’Brien knows his goals. The way the flanker goes about his work, eagerness and determination present themselves quite often. They’re in his body language, his attitude around the pitch.

O’Brien brings an edge and competitive spite to his game that can only be good. He is, he says, also patient. With David Wallace remaining the openside flanker of choice in Declan Kidney’s thinking, that’s probably an imperative more than a choice.

But the Tullow backrow, who also played at number eight in the Ireland Under 21 side with Lansdowne and Leinster’s Dominic Ryan, is versatile. A twist in his and the taller Ryan’s career paths is Ryan used play at six in the underage set up and now the two provincial colleagues are chasing the seven shirt in the Leinster team with Shane Jennings. In that respect, competition within the club side has demanded versatility from all of the backrows.

O’Brien’s fate now is to look sideways at the talented Ryan and Jennings as well as ahead at Wallace and Denis Leamy. In the ongoing debate about the best equation for a balanced Ireland backrow, O’Brien is very much in the picture. Already a successful coach in junior rugby, the 23-year-old knows exactly what he needs to do to cement his name in place, to add to his three caps.

“The competition in the backrow is unbelievable. There’s a lot of experienced lads there,” he says. “I’m the youngest fella and that doesn’t stand to me at times. But at the other end of it, I’m young and eager and determined to make a point.

“He (Wallace) has been there a long time now. He’s a great player and sound in every aspect of the game. It’s just that getting in there every week to try and prove your point has been a hard thing. It’s not as if I’m at the end of my career or anything like that.

“I’m only young and I’m getting experience all the time, even in training. And I’m constantly learning new things from those lads. You have to stay patient because if you get down about it all, it won’t be good for your game.”

Old head, young shoulders. Many of the players are made this way these days in a sport that moves closer towards science and the elimination of mistakes than it does towards blue-sky creativity.

There are similarities as well as differences between Wallace and O’Brien. Both are good ball carriers and enjoy the challenge of broken play and the opportunity to punch holes.

There is dynamism too with both of them, something that stands to the younger player and allows him, with Leinster anyway, to produce eye-catching performances. More comparisons tumble out . . . David Pocock, Richie McCaw

“Everyone is different. They’re probably stronger at some things and weaker at other things,” he says. “I’d be the very same. You’d like to think, ‘Oh, I wish I could do that’. But it mightn’t suit your game. Of course, they’re world-class players and you’d like to think you could get some aspects of their play into yours.

“I’m more of a man on the ground if I can get the chance but I like to carry like Wally does,” he adds, nonplussed about being measured against the big Aussie and All Black.

“That’s a strong point both of us have so I’ll be looking to be doing that.”

Nobody is always in and nobody is always out, the sage O’Brien tells us.

It’s a statement of hope as much as it is of baldly stating the fact.

And the way Kidney speaks about the team, you have to believe the competitive anxieties within the squad determines that no player’s position is set in stone. A poor performance one week means opportunity the next.

“We can’t go out there saying we need to win this game. We need to go out there and perform to the best level. That’s the main focus, to get our own roles right, focus on what we’re doing,” he says.

“Work hard and then hopefully the win will come after that. But first things first, we have to sort ourselves out.”

Manu Samoa are a team that like to try and sort other teams out in their inimitable own way. O’Brien doesn’t blink at the prospect of names that define high-octane aggression, players like Seilala Mapusua, George Stowers, Alesana Tuilagi, who Brian O’Driscoll observed earlier this week “would put a hole in you” if they could.

“They’re known for their contact,” says O’Brien, “We need to be better physically than them.”

And you believe him because he means it.