O’Connor leading from the front at MSP

Isaac O'Connor is not a Catholic, but he laughs his Irish surname and ginger hair over qualify him to play for Marist St. Pat’s.

However he concedes it would have been helpful to have had God on his side in early 2008 when he played his first game for the club. O'Connor recalls the incident that would commence a long battle with injury.

"I was playing for the Colts and for the first time in my life I attempted a left-foot side step. My knee blew out. I guess a man has got to know his limitations," he laments.

O'Connor endured two ACL reconstructions on the left knee and essentially missed three years of rugby. At no point did he think about throwing in the white flag.

"I love the comradery of the game. I love the physical challenge of the game, giving up was never an option," he insists.

O'Connor returned for MSB B in the Hardham Cup in 2010. He made his Premier debut a season later against Wainuiomata.

In 2012 Marist St Pat’s won the Jubilee Cup. O'Connor spent a lot of time on the bench that year. He believes there are similarities between the class of 2012 and the present team.

"We had solid club men that season like Kas Lealamanua and Bernie Upton. They had been around for a while and knew how to get it done. This year we have guys like Frankie Bryant and Peniasi Tokakece who have installed a strong culture at the club."

O'Connor would count as a good "club man." In the last three seasons MSP have made the Jubilee Cup semi-finals twice and he has started 50 games and scored 12 tries. This season he has collected 10 points in the Billy Wallace Best and Fairest competition and earned a place in the Wellington Lions wider training squad. Are first-class honours on the horizon?

"I hope so. The Lions used 43 players last year, but not me," O'Connor laughs.

Ardie Savea and Adam Hill are the contracted openside flankers while a review of the Lions season discovered a lot of club players struggled to make the step up to the pace and systems of the provincial game. How beneficial has the training squad been?

"Very, it's great to work alongside Earl Va'a and Richard Watt and get a better understanding of what's required to make the step up," O'Connor says.

O'Connor admits usurping Savea will be tough. He rates Oriental Rongotai and their flanker very highly.

"I played against Julian Savea at school and he was a beast, but when I marked Ardie in his first year of club rugby I thought he was on another level. He is a freak of an athlete."

"The toughest game this year was the Ories game. They smashed us 34-6. When they get going they are a really dynamic side. The games between us are often fiery because a lot of us are close mates off the field."

O'Connor was a member of the Wellington Sevens team that won the National title in 2013. He has a history degree, worked for CBRE commercial real estate and has returned to Victoria University to commence a commerce degree.

In 2007 he was a member of an unbeaten Wellington College First XV that contained two All Blacks, Jeff Toomaga-Allen and Lima Sopoaga.

O'Connor says he enjoys reminding the St. Pats boys in the Marist side of the school results that year, but he hopes they are singing from the same hymn sheet come the Jubilee Cup finals.