TWO MOMENTS OF individual quality stood out across Leinster’s 45-28 defeat of Harlequins on Saturday.
The first was Sam Prendergast’s gorgeous crossfield to tee-up Jordan Larmour’s second try in the first half.
The second also involved a crossfield, but this time, it was about the man on the receiving end. An hour in, Harry Byrne sent a kick wide in the direction of Tommy O’Brien, but the flight path required the winger to track back slightly to claim it. Having done just that, O’Brien then clevely dropped the ball onto his boot and flicked it low around the onrushing Cameron Anderson, before skipping past the Quins fullback to score.
“It was actually said to us on Thursday about how it’s kind of an option sometimes, obviously once you kick the ball you kind of can’t be touched, so sometimes when you drag them up it’s a good option, when it feels like there’s not a whole lot of space,” O’Brien explains.
“I guess in the back of my mind, those kind of things happened very quickly, so I can’t say I was really thinking about it. It just kind of happened. Sometimes it’s the best idea.
Advertisement
“I think we always try to talk about attacking the best available space, so ideally we should be able to attack everywhere at any option, so we should have a couple of different options at each time.
“I kind of ID’d that that would seem to be the way the Quinns were defending in terms of 15 getting a little bit narrow and putting pressure on our skill set, so sometimes a cross-field is a good way of exposing that. But yeah, it’s kind of just about being able to see what’s happening in the game, adapt and get those pictures in.”
That level of skill and quick thinking has helped O’Brien become an increasingly important player for Leinster, and also allowed the 27-year-old to kick on at international level. Injury struggles have meant it’s all happened a little later than he would have liked, but O’Brien is making up for lost time.
He debuted for Ireland on the summer tour of Georgia and Portugal and started all four November Tests in the 14 shirt, scoring a try in the win against Japan. With Mack Hansen facing another long spell on the sidelines, O’Brien knows a strong run of form can keep him in the Ireland team once Andy Farrell is assembling his squad for the 2026 Six Nations.
O'Brien started all four November Tests for Ireland. Gary Carr / INPHO
Gary Carr / INPHO / INPHO
The Leinster back reveals he had targeted Ireland’s November opener against New Zealand in Chicago as soon as the fixture had been announced last year, even though he’d yet to be capped by Andy Farrell.
“I remember my Dad texting me, being like ‘Alright, I’m going to this regardless of if you’re going or not, so no pressure’, and I kind of circled that, thinking that was something pretty cool. It doesn’t happen very often and obviously it was a disappointing performance in the result that we got over there, but even being over there was pretty special.
“And it’s one of those things that we talked about during the week of it, or the day before the game, it’s almost one of those life changing moments… And photos of people were circulating that were on the streets in Chicago in 2016 that it’s one of those times that everyone, the people that went over, they remember that it wasn’t just another game.
“Obviously, we didn’t live up to that, which is disappointing, but the whole experience was amazing and from then to get back at home (and play) in front of fans for Ireland for the first time, that was something that was obviously a big continuity and I’m now setting targets about Six Nations.
Growing up my whole life watching that, you know the intensity of that, but once you get a taste of it internationally, you want to just play in something like that.”
Reaching this level at a later stage than most of his international teammates, O’Brien feels better equipped to the different pressures that come with being a Test player than he might have been a couple of years ago.
“I think I’ve gotten a lot better as I’ve gotten older, probably as much as I hated old injuries that I got and stuff like that that, now that I’m almost breaking through and I’m 27 or so I’m a lot more mature than maybe if I’d broken through when I was 21/22 because I definitely put a lot more pressure on myself when I was younger and a lot more stress.
“Who knows if that was something to do with injuries, that I was putting pressure on myself and putting myself under so much stress. I think I’m a lot more relaxed now going into games and I noticed that even with all the Autumn Nations games, I was thinking, ‘Jeez, this is going to be a step up, I’m going to be really nervous here’, but thankfully, didn’t find it daunting or anything like that with each step up.”
Keep it up, and he’ll have plenty more big days to look forward to in both the blue of Leinster and the green of Ireland.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
'I definitely put a lot more pressure on myself when I was younger, a lot more stress'
TWO MOMENTS OF individual quality stood out across Leinster’s 45-28 defeat of Harlequins on Saturday.
The first was Sam Prendergast’s gorgeous crossfield to tee-up Jordan Larmour’s second try in the first half.
The second also involved a crossfield, but this time, it was about the man on the receiving end. An hour in, Harry Byrne sent a kick wide in the direction of Tommy O’Brien, but the flight path required the winger to track back slightly to claim it. Having done just that, O’Brien then clevely dropped the ball onto his boot and flicked it low around the onrushing Cameron Anderson, before skipping past the Quins fullback to score.
“It was actually said to us on Thursday about how it’s kind of an option sometimes, obviously once you kick the ball you kind of can’t be touched, so sometimes when you drag them up it’s a good option, when it feels like there’s not a whole lot of space,” O’Brien explains.
“I guess in the back of my mind, those kind of things happened very quickly, so I can’t say I was really thinking about it. It just kind of happened. Sometimes it’s the best idea.
“I think we always try to talk about attacking the best available space, so ideally we should be able to attack everywhere at any option, so we should have a couple of different options at each time.
“I kind of ID’d that that would seem to be the way the Quinns were defending in terms of 15 getting a little bit narrow and putting pressure on our skill set, so sometimes a cross-field is a good way of exposing that. But yeah, it’s kind of just about being able to see what’s happening in the game, adapt and get those pictures in.”
That level of skill and quick thinking has helped O’Brien become an increasingly important player for Leinster, and also allowed the 27-year-old to kick on at international level. Injury struggles have meant it’s all happened a little later than he would have liked, but O’Brien is making up for lost time.
He debuted for Ireland on the summer tour of Georgia and Portugal and started all four November Tests in the 14 shirt, scoring a try in the win against Japan. With Mack Hansen facing another long spell on the sidelines, O’Brien knows a strong run of form can keep him in the Ireland team once Andy Farrell is assembling his squad for the 2026 Six Nations.
The Leinster back reveals he had targeted Ireland’s November opener against New Zealand in Chicago as soon as the fixture had been announced last year, even though he’d yet to be capped by Andy Farrell.
“I remember my Dad texting me, being like ‘Alright, I’m going to this regardless of if you’re going or not, so no pressure’, and I kind of circled that, thinking that was something pretty cool. It doesn’t happen very often and obviously it was a disappointing performance in the result that we got over there, but even being over there was pretty special.
“And it’s one of those things that we talked about during the week of it, or the day before the game, it’s almost one of those life changing moments… And photos of people were circulating that were on the streets in Chicago in 2016 that it’s one of those times that everyone, the people that went over, they remember that it wasn’t just another game.
“Obviously, we didn’t live up to that, which is disappointing, but the whole experience was amazing and from then to get back at home (and play) in front of fans for Ireland for the first time, that was something that was obviously a big continuity and I’m now setting targets about Six Nations.
Reaching this level at a later stage than most of his international teammates, O’Brien feels better equipped to the different pressures that come with being a Test player than he might have been a couple of years ago.
“I think I’ve gotten a lot better as I’ve gotten older, probably as much as I hated old injuries that I got and stuff like that that, now that I’m almost breaking through and I’m 27 or so I’m a lot more mature than maybe if I’d broken through when I was 21/22 because I definitely put a lot more pressure on myself when I was younger and a lot more stress.
“Who knows if that was something to do with injuries, that I was putting pressure on myself and putting myself under so much stress. I think I’m a lot more relaxed now going into games and I noticed that even with all the Autumn Nations games, I was thinking, ‘Jeez, this is going to be a step up, I’m going to be really nervous here’, but thankfully, didn’t find it daunting or anything like that with each step up.”
Keep it up, and he’ll have plenty more big days to look forward to in both the blue of Leinster and the green of Ireland.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Champions Cup Leinster Rugby Tommy O'Brien