“Brute force.”
That’s what the Sky Sports commentary team called it and who could blame them? Sean O’Brien was on it against Crusaders – in a grinding 12-3 victory – and staked a mighty claim for that Lions No.7 Test jersey.
The Tullow Tank gave it his all for 55 fierce minutes before Warren Gatland went easy on the Kiwis… and threw CJ Stander on.
O’Brien had not played for 10 weeks before his start at Rugby League Park but he eased all doubts about his fitness and readiness for the bigger tests ahead with an excellent performance.
There may have only been 19 metres gained off seven O’Brien carries yet all but one got the Lions over the gainline. There was a serious shift logged from the Ireland flanker and he gripped, ripped and ran it whenever and wherever he could.
Credit: Sky Sports
One of the impressive aspects of O’Brien’s energetic outing had to be the force of his clear-outs and support play around the ruck – in attack and defence.
His power was demonstrated to superb effect after 43 minutes of the game. As the Lions tested the Crusaders defence, O’Brien showed up with two no-nonsense contributions at the breakdown.
On the second occasion – 13 seconds after clearing out from a Ben Te’o carry – O’Brien arrived on the scene and flung Luke Romano to the deck.
Sean O'Brien with two big clear-outs in 13 seconds! pic.twitter.com/DlZHnGYnjE
— Pat McCarry (@patmccarry) June 10, 2017
Not too bad after so long on the sidelines, biding his time and telling himself his time would come.
O’Brien’s time on the 2017 Lions Tour has come and Sam Warburton will need to seriously impress against Highlanders, down in Dundein, on Tuesday to stave off the Carlow man.
