SOME THINGS ARE worth the wait. Tommy O’Brien’s season took a while to take off, with injury limiting his availability across the first half of the campaign, but once he came back into the mix the Leinster man certainly made his presence felt.

Across the opening half of the season O’Brien played twice – once in September and once in December. From February on, he featured 11 times for the province, his form reflected with starts in the Champions Cup semi-final, before holding the 14 shirt for the URC semi-final and final wins.

It was enough to earn him a spot in the Ireland squad for the upcoming Tests against Georgia and Portugal. And at 27, O’Brien feels not only that the time is right, but that he’s ready to make a real mark at international level.

“Obviously there’s guys away, Lowey [James Lowe] and Mack [Hansen] are away with the Lions, so there’s two wingers there for Ireland, but I want to try stake a claim and make myself a mainstay in this squad and try to push (for a place in future squads). Obviously there’s this summer tour and then you’ve November internationals and Six Nations and stuff.

I definitely don’t want to be a one-cap wonder. Hopefully this is the start for me now of being in this squad and pushing for places.”

O’Brien linked up with the Ireland squad last week, with Paul O’Connell acknowledging the achievement of Leinster’s URC winners before the group rolled their sleeves up. O’Brien was part of an Ireland A squad earlier this year and trained with Andy Farrell’s team during the Six Nations.

“I guess I was in for a week, the France week of the Six Nations, that was my first exposure and it’s obviously a massive and unbelievably intense week with it being a crucial game as part of that Six Nations.

O'Brien spoke to the media earlier this week. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

“But to be honest it feels similar in terms of people want to put their best foot forward, the standards that are expected haven’t dropped at all, they’re not giving people leeway because it’s a lot of people in a new camp. We’re given all the terminology early enough and you’re expected to spend the time and make sure you’re up to speed so that come training time, come match time you’re ready to go. 

“There’s obviously a few guys who I would have known from that A game we played, and then also guys who are pretty established in here that have been in here. It’s interesting, there’s guys stepping up who maybe wouldn’t have been speaking up more in previous senior roles in here, and then there’s guys coming in who are really excited, first time in here, that are adding a lot of excitement as well.”

It’s over five years since O’Brien debuted for Leinster, but his progress has been consistently hampered by injury. A talented runner at underage, O’Brien broke his leg in sixth year and has been frustrated by knee, ACL, ankle and hamstring problems as a Leinster player.

There were tough days, but the former Blackrock man says he never lost faith in his abilities.

The winger was outstanding across the second half of the season. Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO

“I guess I’ve known what I can do in training but 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 and 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 felt like I had a really good preseason (last summer) and then did my hamstring in the first game and took a few months to get back, but 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.”

There might just be even more to celebrate in the coming weeks.