Leinster’s Jimmy O’Brien the latest off the Eadestown production line
When people used to think about the Kildare village of Eadestown from a sporting context, the game of rugby was one of the furthest things from their minds.
Located within earshot of the famed Punchestown Racecourse, it was also the breeding ground for Gaelic football star Larry Tompkins before he went on to achieve All-Ireland glory with Cork in 1989 and 1990.
However, since Tadhg Beirne blazed a trail by taking up the oval ball on a permanent basis a little over a decade ago, several others from the village have followed. In addition to his current Munster colleague Rowan Osborne and Connacht prospect Diarmuid Kilgallen, Leinster utility back Jimmy O’Brien also hails from Eadestown and recently joined up with Beirne in the Ireland senior squad.
“My parents know his [Beirne’s] parents well enough and there is nothing in Eadestown really. There is a church at the main crossroads, he’s about 300 metres one side of the church and I’m 300 metres the other side,” O’Brien explained.
“Funny that a small village can produce a few professional rugby players. Rowan Osborne as well, I would have grown up with him. We were in junior infants together and grew up the whole way, played GAA. Diarmuid Kilgallen, he’s in Connacht. He just got a senior contract and he’s literally between me and Tadhg [in Eadestown].”
Although he made his first-team debut for Leinster back in November 2018 and has 42 provincial appearances under his belt, it is only in the past few months that O’Brien has truly stepped into the limelight. A try-scorer in the Blues’ Champions Cup demolition of Montpellier on January 16, he crossed the whitewash on no fewer than four occasions in a similarly-emphatic European victory against Bath six days later.
The latter performance caught the eye of Ireland head coach Andy Farrell, who called him into his international squad ahead of last Sunday’s Six Nations win over Italy. He has now been released back to the eastern province for their trip to Benetton on Saturday in the United Rugby Championship (kick-off 12.55pm) having missed out on selection for the Italian game, but it was an experience he cherished nonetheless.
“It was class. It was my first time getting properly called up to the squad so I was very excited going in there. I was chatting to all the coaches individually. They said they were glad to have me in and ‘Don’t do anything different, just do what you’re doing’. They’re very encouraging and great to talk to.”
A former Ireland U20s and 7s international, O’Brien – whose parents are from Clonmel in Tipperary – has ambitions of returning to Farrell’s set-up again in the future. If he is to do so, he recognises he will have to continue to make the cut for the big matches at provincial level.
“I have to definitely be playing in the Champions Cup here in Leinster. That’s the big thing, at Leinster I want to be one of the top performers. That’s my main thing, I want to get back in there,” O’Brien added.