The colossal performances of Tullow Tank Sean O’Brien in the World Cup to date have set alarm bells ringing in the Welsh camp ahead of the quarter-final tomorrow.
The Irish flanker has been one of the stars of the competition so far thanks to some bulldozing ball carries, thumping tackles and effective work at the breakdown, even if his positioning at openside flanker was deemed to be not best suited to his abilities coming into the tournament.
Those concerns are a thing of the past now, however, as O’Brien has delivered a string of powerful displays to date, prompting southern hemisphere pundits to wax lyrical about his qualities and Irish fans to set up a dedicated hashtag to his brilliance on Twitter (For more on that one, check out #seanobrienfacts).
The Welsh back row and the likes of Sam Warburton, Toby Faletau and Dan Lydiate have also impressed so far, but Lydiate preferred to take the attention away from his own side and shift the emphasis to O’Brien ahead of tomorrow’s clash in Wellington.
It may be a ploy to increase the pressure on the Carlow native ahead of the all-Celtic quarter-final, but O’Brien has been showered with praise for weeks now and it has affected him little thus far.
“He (O’Brien) is a class player. He was European player of the year last season,” Lydiate said.
“And it isn’t only him. Stephen Ferris was on the Lions tour and Jamie Heaslip is a Lions Test player, so they have arguably the best back row in the tournament.
“It is going to be an interesting game, but I know our back row will be up for it.
Lydiate acknowledged that O’Brien is indeed a hard man to stop, but said that the conditioning of the Welsh players and their experience of playing against the physical South Africans and Pacific Island sides will stand them in good stead.
“O’Brien is a go-to man, someone who always gets them over the gain-line whoever they are up against. He trucks it up for them and is really effective at it,” Lydiate added.
“It does take a lot of people to stop him when he has those bullocking runs. It’s our job to try to nullify him.
“We must not miss any tackles and as best we can, keep knocking them back. Playing against South Africa and the Pacific islands teams has put us in good stead.
“They are all big blokes, so the boys are all conditioned now to deal with powerful men who take some stopping.”
Meetings between the two sides have traditionally been close in recent seasons, with often no more than a score between them. Given the form of both sides heading into Saturday’s clash at the ‘Cake Tin’ in Wellington, Lydiate expects more of the same this time around.
“There is going to be two teams going for it, a lot of blood, sweat and tears by the end of the game,” said Lydiate.
“Since the South Africa game we’ve effectively been playing knockout rugby, one slip and we would have been out.
“And the great thing is that while we’ve been prepared to grind out results, we have also shown we can play flamboyant, awesome rugby to watch.
“It is going to be an even contest that will go down to the wire.”
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