JAMIE OSBORNE ANNOUNCED himself on the Champions Cup stage by playing a starring role on the occasion of his first start in the competition, capping an all-action display with a wonderful try as Leinster stormed to a 49-14 win at Gloucester.
The versatile 21-year-old has been in superb form for the province and was rewarded for his recent performances in the URC with a place in the starting XV for today’s trip to Kingsholm, where he partnered captain Garry Ringrose in midfield.
And with Ireland attack coach Mike Catt and defence coach Simon Easterby watching on from the stands, Osborne lit up the game with his varied attacking threat – running some brilliant lines and showing good footwork to cross for his first-half try, finishing with 15 carries and two clean breaks.
With Andy Farrell due to name his Six Nations squad on Thursday, Osborne’s latest eye-catching display will ensure he’s part of the conversation.
“He’s just getting better all the time, and he’s still incredibly young,” said Leinster head coach, Leo Cullen.
“He’s had plenty of experience, he came into the group and you could just see the natural ability that he has.
He’s very good and composed. It was a good game for Jamie because it’s not an easy place to come, up against a good experienced team. I thought he had some really outstanding moments in the game.”
Cullen was pleased with how his side made a fast start to silence the Kingsholm crowd – Leinster hitting their hosts for two early tries before sowing up the bonus point before half time.
“It’s a bloody hard place to come,” added Cullen, who had a taste of the Kingsholm experience during his playing days with Leicester Tigers.
“For our guys, the intent to play into the wind, tricky conditions in the first half but some good variety in our play.
“We get over for a couple of well worked tries, the lads made it look quite easy, so that’s a credit to everyone – coaches, bit of scouting in terms of analysts, and then the execution of the players to deliver on a few different plans.
Gloucester had their moments in the game around setpiece, we talked about their strong kicking game, so they didn’t make life easy for us and I thought they were committed in defence, even the start of the second half they repelled us a couple of times. So there’s plenty bits for us to get better at, that’s the bit we need to get after now.”
Gloucester, whose only points arrived via two penalty tries, did manage to trouble Leinster around the scrum and lineout. With more powerful sides surely waiting further down the line in the knockout stages, it’s an area in which Leinster will be keen to find improvement.
“We want to go after teams in that facet of the game. The two tries, [the question is more] why are we ending up in that situation when we have to defend half a dozen lineout mauls from 5m out? Obviously we gave away two penalty tries there but Gloucester are a well-drilled team.
“Most coaches would be looking at what they do, George [Skivington] has done a really good job there and you’re seeing it week on week where they’re scoring tries from lineout mauls.
“I’ll have a look at it back in a bit more detail, the lads will have a look at it for sure, but there are other facets of the game that can definitely improve on, but overall I think the mindset has been pretty good.”
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