PRO12 RUGBY: CONNACHT V LEINSTER
The Sportsground
Saturday, 5.15PM
A BIG GARRY HONE
Sean: Joe’s right to give Ringrose space and time to develop
By DAIRE WALSH
SEAN O’BRIEN says Joe Schmidt was right not to throw Garry Ringrose in at the deep end.
The Leinster and Ireland flanker believes it would have been a risk to select the 21-year-old centre for the Six Nations at this stage in his career.
“Joe’s trying to develop him and mind his body. It’s different for someone who’s had a bit of experience, had a year under his belt. If Garry goes in next year into the Six Nations, we’ll see a different Garry in terms of his physicality and smartness,” O’Brien said.
“You fire him in there this year, I guarantee he gets hurt. You’ve big centres running down his channel. They’re going to run straight into him. Regardless of how talented you are, you’re going to get hurt.
“It’s definitely the right idea about what the coaches are doing with these young lads, who are phenomenally talented. But, there is a way of bringing them into the system.”
It was a frustrating Championship campaign for O’Brien, who hasn’t played since picking up an injury in Ireland’s second game of the competition in Paris. Although the quest to secure a third consecutive Six Nations crown was unsuccessful, the Tullow man felt Ireland performed admirably.
“I thought it was very good. We weren’t a million miles away. We left the French game behind, we didn’t get off to a good start against England, but the rest of the games we did very well.
“We did very well last weekend and I think it’s a building block for us this year. The lads did themselves proud – the way they worked. They worked extremely hard in tough conditions. We can take lots of positives from it probably and that’s the biggest thing.
O’Brien’s troublesome hamstring rules him out of Leinster’s top-of-the-table Pro12 clash with Connacht on Saturday but in his absence, blindside Dominic Ryan is expected to feature again.
And while traditionally the Blues’ biggest game of the year is against Munster, Ryan feels that this weekend’s tie holds even greater importance.
“The last couple of years, the big game of the year was Leinster-Munster. Now it’s a top-of-the-table clash with Leinster-Connacht. It’s just a huge game for both clubs,” he said. “Whoever wins goes top of the table. I think it’s our biggest game of the year this year, and you could argue it could prove to be the biggest game of the whole season.”