As highlights reels go, Tommy O’Brien’s offers a pretty compelling vindication of his talent, whether the viewer dwells on him mullering Cardiff wing Harri Millard into touch, a try-saving intervention or a pinpoint cross-kick while being swung around as the pivotal moment in Dan Sheehan’s try against Ulster.
The 27-year-old Leinster winger’s injury issues have been well documented but when fit he’s been eye-catching in his contributions, especially of late, winning a starting role in Leinster’s run to a URC title.
Only the churlish could ignore his ability. It was clear during his two years on the Ireland under-20 team, the second as captain, and but for injuries he would probably have been capped by Andy Farrell. Injury prevented from travelling to South Africa with Emerging Ireland, while a glut of early replacements in the A international against England in February meant few Irish players emerged with reputations enhanced.
Test matches against Georgia and Portugal should offer O’Brien a chance to win a belated first senior cap. Contemporaries from those underage teams travelling on the Ireland summer tour include Gavin Coombes, Calvin Nash, Ciarán Frawley, Jack Aungier and Tom O’Toole, while interim Irish head coach Paul O’Connell, worked with O’Brien at under-20 level.
“Paulie, he was the forwards coach for our Under-20s World Cup, so I had a little exposure to him, that was kind of the start of his coaching career, and he’s obviously done a great job in here. [I’ve] massive respect for Paulie, he was an unbelievable leader as a player and he kind of commands that same respect as a coach.”
On the disappointment of the A international against England, he recalled: “We got a few HIAs early [and had a] 6-2 [split on the bench], so we ended up completely rejigging the backline. We didn’t unfortunately get to play as much rugby as we like to, but I was just hit with the physicality, it was a level up on what I’d been used to.
“I enjoyed it, and obviously we didn’t get a great result that day, but it definitely made me realise there’s a physicality element [to playing at that level].”
Mental resilience has been key for O’Brien given his injury profile. A hamstring tear in the first game of the season sidelined him for a few months. It didn’t erode his confidence that he would return in good nick.
“I guess I’ve known what I can do in training. It’s obviously behind closed doors, so the general public wouldn’t see it, but I had a bit of confidence in what I was doing. The fact you’re training in Leinster with such high-level players, such international quality players, I took a bit of confidence from that, and I felt I just needed to get a chance to get a couple of games under my belt.
“I always would have been able to come back and have full faith, it’s probably a credit to all the physios, but I never really felt coming back that I was running at 80 per cent, or 75 per cent, or whatever. Once I was back, I felt like I had full confidence in myself to be able to do whatever I felt like I needed to do.
“I’ve loved my rugby the last few months and I love just getting a run of games. It’s something I haven’t really had in my career, getting an extended period of games, and thankfully that tied in with the [URC] trophy.”
Jordie Barrett’s six-month stint at Leinster was an unqualified success in terms of his contribution on and off the pitch and O’Brien admits he was one of the beneficiaries.
“Jordie’s someone that would have had a few different perspectives and a few different ideas, so that was awesome to get those different opinions on things.
“He would just pose different questions, like we’d be in meetings and there’s obviously an element of groupthink when you’ve been shown the same footage, had the same coaches for a while, and he’s coming in from a different background. Nothing specific, he would just be saying, ‘why don’t we try this?’ or ‘have you ever thought of this?’ in terms of maybe defensive reads or something like that.
“He’s a bit of a maverick in that he just reads the game, and he knows what he can do, so if he sees something he has full faith and just goes and does it himself and people generally react off that.”
O’Brien’s focus now is that landmark first Ireland cap. “It’s what you dream of as a kid, getting to represent your country. There’s 12 of us in here who haven’t done it yet, so fingers crossed now as many of them as possible can get that first cap.”
