With Leinster Rugby confirmed a number of new faces to their backroom team in recent days, head coach Leo Cullen has been sharing his thoughts on Sean O’Brien’s addition to the province staff.
Having retired from the professional playing ranks earlier this year, O’Brien is now working with Leinster as Contact Skills Coach.
Cullen seems to think O’Brien will do very well behind the scenes.
“He brings real presence, I think, to the group straight away”, said Cullen of O’Brien earlier this week.
“His power and his personality, he’s been good, straight in, not shy, just getting involved straight away which has been great. He has a huge amount of experience.He needed time away, obviously, he’s followed closely what’s going on here. He’s got that critical eye, has been a good addition to the group, a great voice and I think he has a bright future in coaching.”
O’Brien is just one of a number of backroom appointments made to Leinster in recent months.
Andrew Goodman was also added as an assistant coach over the summer with Declan Darcy (performance coach) and Eoghan Hickey (senior performance nutritionist) confirmed this week.
Darcy is a former Leitrim and Dublin Gaelic footballer and since retiring has been coaching with various teams over the last number of years but was most notably part of the successful Dublin football team under Jim Gavin as defence coach from 2013 until 2019.
“Eoghan comes in from Sport Wales with a wealth of knowledge and experience and a passion for nutrition and he is very keen on adding to what Daniel had already brought to the club as well as complimenting the work already underway by Sophie Conroy, our Academy Performance Nutritionist”, sad Leo Cullen.
“He is already up and running and had a busy first week when he was thrown straight into our 12-county tour of Leinster. It’s an important appointment for the club and we wish Eoghan every success in his role.”
