John O'Sullivan

Yeah, he's a brilliant young... I've always liked him as a player.

I've always... I've felt sorry for him because the injury profile he's had.

He just needs to kick on.

It's a funny one and I get... And I think it's a nice thing for him to play with Clontarf.

There would be an element...

I would have thought with the player himself that he would have loved to have been in the Leinster team in Treviso because of the fact that that's where your livelihood is.

You're a pro player and given an injury-ravaged season, you want opportunities, and he might have had an opportunity in that game.

So I think he won't be distracted or anything like that.

It's great that he gets to play in the final with Klontarf, but I think for Hugh Cooney and his development,

I'd love to see him get regular opportunities in the Leinster set-up next season, just to kind of push on, because that's where he is at this stage in his career.

Buckets of talent, very, very good going forward, runs great lines, very, very good brain, rugby brain, and needs to just back himself a little bit more, I think, at times, from watching him on the outside.

I think he's...

Like I say, I've lots of time for him as a player.

I think he's got lots of potential, but he now needs to kind of just push on and be a little bit more confident and obviously be lucky with injury and get the opportunities.

Well, see, the thing here is that patience is one thing, but if you stunt their progress in terms of a lack of opportunity at higher levels, what you end up with is a player with very low mileage in professional rugby when they do break into the team under 24 and 25.

So we've had this discussion before, and it's an argument I've posed in print and on this podcast.

the longer you leave young good young players and the more you stunt their progress in terms of getting access to top level rugby the longer it takes for them to come through and in some respects they go off the boil some of the players go off the boil because of that lack of progress development you feel very mentally strong if the only thing you're playing is club matches and maybe uh

an A Interpro series and a couple of games in the URC.

For young, ambitious players with talent, that's where I see that there is a real issue in terms of that development of young players and bringing them through more quickly.

It's a great spectacle.