Calm before the storm as Ireland players enjoy brief respite

A down week for the Irish boys but a busy day for some. Tommy Bowe is selling chocolate in the Aviva Stadium, Sean O'Brien talking up bacon and cabbage in the city and Shane Jennings announcing his final months as a player with Leinster.

Today Conor Murray will sell an energy drink by kicking conversions against journalists in Grand Canal Dock. If that's a ruse by Joe Schmidt to give his scrumhalf even more confidence, it is a cast-iron certainty to succeed.

O’Brien has the radiance of a kid who has been allowed out to play on the street again. An easy smile and a strong body, his battles with shoulders and hamstrings have sharpened the rugby need.

For Bowe his last week was tinged with sadness. A win over France to extend Ireland’s winning streak to nine in a row and the passing of his grandmother, Breda, was mournful but memorable and sweet.

It brought together some of the things she loved, rugby and her strapping grandson on the winning side.

“Yeah she passed away at the start of last week. And it was quite special,” said the Irish winger.

"She's still quite well known in Ulster for turning up with her blankets over her and her hot toddy . . .people still talk about her. She was a big supporter of me and I think it was nice to get that victory for my family, for my dad.

“I think playing in the Irish jersey is not just about you on the pitch. It’s about the people and that Irish pride . . . it was a nice one to win . She was in her 90Breda, Breda Bowe.”

It has also been a time for O’Brien to be reflective and Jennings’ announcement brought home again that rugby careers are finite and brief.

O’Brien was left long enough to stew about his shoulders and the what ifs every player goes through when he doesn’t know, for certain that in the first tackle the shoulder will hold. His faith in the medics is unbreakable. But life after rugby has its own way of imposing.

“Retirement never came into my head but you are always thinking of life after rugby nowadays,” said O’Brien.

“I never thought of it before but now you know that you need something there. You could be finished tomorrow, for instance, and you have to be as best prepared as possible if it does finish.

Biggest thing

“That’s the biggest thing that is driven through all the set-ups, national side and everything, to prepare yourself as best as possible for life after rugby. You can’t just finish and go, ‘Right, what am I doing now?’ There has to be a plan in place.”

He knows too that regardless of what the media say about the ever-present concussion, the size of the French and the muscle power of the English, who arrive next week, the Irish system can hold.

When he looks back at the younger players emerging, he can already see the change. They are bespoke and designed to meet the needs of the Rugby High Street, the modern game.

“Lads are more powerful. They’re getting faster. The collisions are getting bigger,” says O’Brien. “The biggest thing I have noticed is in the academy and how big the younger lads are getting, at 19 or 20. They are going to need to be that big, I think.

“I don’t worry about it because there is a lot of science behind everything they are doing. If other teams are getting bigger and we’re getting bigger at the same time, we’re not going to be left behind.

“If we were a country, or a group of players that were not developing as quickly, then you’d be getting in trouble injury-wise. We know what to expect and how to train for those types of things. It’s all tailored to suit us.”

With Jamie Heaslip out O’Brien does not know what plans Joe Schmidt has. Tangled lists of combinations in the backrow is the way the coach likes it.

He wants his wingers to be centres and his centres to be fullbacks and flank men. He likes his locks to be backrows and his hookers to do 50 metre in five seconds. Schmidt, he doesn’t ask much.

Outside centre

Bowe sees the value in qualifying in several of the backline professions. He did, after all, play outside centre with Ospreys. It gives him currency and it’s a valuable one to have around the Kiwi coach.

“To be part of a winning team, you’d be happy to do whatever,” says Bowe.

“I got a bit of ball in the autumn and I was happy with that. The first two games of this campaign, yeah, I suppose I’ve had to do other areas of the back three jobs and certainly areas Joe likes to concentrate a lot on.

“As back three players, his wingers have to be able to play 13 and have to be able to play 15, have to be good in the air, good at competing for the ball.

“But against a team like the French and the Italians, they’re big up front, big strong men so maybe putting the ball behind them and trying to force turnovers is an area I pride myself on.”

Bowe is 30-years-old, O’Brien 28.

They’ve seen everything before and what seem like landmarks, Bastareaud and Papé, raise barely a flicker. Maybe it’s the down weeks. Maybe that’s just what they do.