Ball carriers of the calibre of Seán O'Brien and Cain Healy don't exactly grow on trees, least of all Irish ones, and by dint of the former joining the latter on the long-term casualty list, Matt O'Connor has accepted that Leinster, no less than Ireland, have been seriously de-powered for the next few months; the hope being that O'Brien's absence will ultimately only be for six months.
In the interim though, there remains the mystery surrounding O’Brien’s operation for a dislocated shoulder at the turn of the year, and specifically why it had to be conducted in the UK, what exactly went wrong, why the operation to rectify the infection in his shoulder is also being conducted across the water and to what extent this must cast a shadow of the remainder of the 27-year-old’s career?
Infection
“It needs reconstructive surgery which he will have tomorrow which is about a six-month window,” said O’Connor yesterday, before attempting to shed some light on the matter. “The infection that he got post-surgery last time meant that the graft wasn’t as successful as everyone would have liked and he’s having to have that re-done tomorrow.”
“I think it was just a bacterial infection post-surgery that is quite common with open surgery,” added the Leinster coach, who admittedly is no doctor, although the commonality of a post-operation infection sounded questionable. “The graft didn’t take and as a result he needs that tightened up. Because of the softening of the tissue with the infection the screws that were put in weren’t as successful as we would have liked.”
Nor, one imagines, as O’Brien himself would have liked. This is clearly a very serious issue, not least for the player himself, as it must be considered career threatening.
Touch wood
“He’s looking at the upsides as you have to do in these situations,” said O’Connor, “and hopefully he will come through the other side of that when he is right in February/March to play a significant part in the back end of the season for us, and be in a pretty good place into a
World Cup
and, touch wood, things are better for him moving forward.” Touch wood indeed, for even by then he will have played only four games in 14 or 15 months.
As to why O’Brien is returning to Manchester for this latest operation, O’Connor said: “The theory is that the man in Manchester is world-class. That is the thinking”.
“Yeah, it puts a dent in our ability to carry the ball,” admitted O’Connor. “To be fair there is not many as good as Cian or Seanie in that aspect of that. We will have to rely on other blokes that are in the group.” To that end he referenced Jack Conan, Kane Douglas, Seán Cronin, Richardt Strauss and, perhaps most obviously of all, Rhys Ruddock.
“He carried a lot of Friday night. He is developing brilliantly into a world class six,” O’Connor said of Ruddock, adding: “His lineout skills and his impact that he puts on the game whether he has got the ball or defensively is outstanding.”
O’Brien’s absence is compounded by injuries to the two players who helped fill the void left by his shoulder problems, Shane Jennings and Jordi Murphy, although in their absence, as O’Connor said: “Dominic Ryan is doing an unbelievable job for us so far. It’s great to see Dominic getting more and more rugby because he has had a pretty chequered couple of seasons injury-wise so for him to get a run of games, it’s brilliant.”
Not helped by their casualty toll, O'Connor conceded Leinster's form has been patchy. "From that end we'll be looking at an 80 minute performance where we've sort of stopped and started, done some very, very good things and let ourselves down in other areas. You won't get away with that against Munster, regardless of how they're going. It's a massive game for both groups to see where we're at."
Level of ‘hate’
With tickets sales touching 42,000, O’Connor is targeting a performance of which Leinster can be proud. Asked if there was still the same level of “hate” between Leinster and Munster in his relatively brief experience, O’Connor said: “I think there’ll be a fair bit of hate come 6.30 Saturday.”
“It’s easy to be composed about it now. But, the reality is that there’s a lot at stake. There’s four points. There’s bragging rights. There’s Ireland selection. There’s all sort of balls in the air when it comes to this fixture. That’s what makes it special. From that end, we’d like to go into it without any red mist. The reality is there will be a lot of sharp shoulders on Saturday night.”
There is also, he stressed, a healthy respect. “They have pretty good relationship with these guys through the Junior ranks. They’ve seen a lot of each other and they’ll spend a lot of time together over the next twelve months in Ireland camp and in various different scenarios. It’s always good to get one up on your rival and the players are no different.”
