JIMMY O’BRIEN LOOKING TO BOUNCE BACK AGAINST GLASGOW

United Rugby Championship – Quarter Final 

By Daire Walsh

DESPITE there being an expectation that Leinster will bounce back from their Champions Cup heartbreak at the hands of La Rochelle, experience has taught Eadestown man Jimmy O’Brien not to take Glasgow Warriors for granted.

The RDS in Ballsbridge is the venue on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 3.15pm) for the Irish province’s United Rugby Championship quarter-final clash with their Scottish counterparts. Leinster may have finished seven places and 17 points ahead of their forthcoming opponents in the regular URC table, but a 15-12 reversal to Glasgow in the Rainbow Cup exactly a year ago on Saturday at Scotstoun Stadium still sticks out in O’Brien’s memory.

“When they actually beat us over there last year, a lot of us were playing. That’s kind of still a scar for a lot of the lads playing. I think I was playing left-wing that day and they really got into us and got a good win out of it. That really pissed us off, we were very frustrated. They’re a good side with a lot of good players. It’s going to be a very tough game,” O’Brien explained.

“They’ve strengths all over the park. I’ve been looking at their backs a lot more. Their 10, Ross Thompson, is a very good left-footer. He’s very young, but he has taken the reins now and starts week in, week out for them. I know the young full-back, Ollie Smith, he’s been good this season. They have a lot of threats all over the park.”

While O’Brien made a host of appearances during Leinster’s successful marches towards Pro14 titles in 2019, 2020 and 2021, he was forced to watch from the sideline during the business end of each campaign. He is in a much different position on this occasion, however, and is hoping to play an integral role as Leo Cullen’s men set their sights on the inaugural URC crown.

“I hadn’t really played knockout rugby for Leinster up until this season, so I really want to play in these big games. Hopefully we still have three big knockout games to come, starting this weekend against Glasgow. I’d love to play in it. They’re still massive games and I’d love to play in another final and try to win one.”

When he was speaking to the media on Tuesday, O’Brien was still trying to come to terms with Leinster’s agonising European loss to La Rochelle in Marseille just three days earlier. Although his performance on the day from the right-wing was generally regarded as a strong one, this was scant consolation for the former Newbridge College student in the grand scheme of things.

“My girlfriend tried telling me that as well and I told her I would have taken playing the worst game of my career if we had won. I would have taken a red card, doing everything bad. Missing every tackle, dropping every ball if we had just won. It’s very, very difficult. I wanted us to win and everyone in the building did. We were so focused on winning it.”

Whereas Leinster often go for the jugular when awarded penalties inside the opposition half, a more cautious approach was adopted for their duel with La Rochelle. Seven penalties – six from team captain Jonathan Sexton and one from his replacement Ross Byrne – made up their final tally of 21 points, with a number of their efforts at goal being inside the La Rochelle ’22’.

Given how the game panned out, it has been suggested that the Blues could have gone for the corner to try and conjure try-scoring opportunities against the Top 14 outfit. Yet everyone is always wise after the fact and O’Brien is adamant that keeping the scoreboard ticking over was the smartest policy in the heat of battle.

“There were chances to score and we got the penalty advantages and stuff like that. When we took the penalties at the time it felt like the right decision to go for three. When you look back at it now, you think, ‘Oh yeah, we should have gone for a try because we would have won then’.

“During the game I felt it was the right decision going for three and keep the scoreboard ticking over. We built up a lead. I think we went eight points up after 50-something minutes, so it’s easy to say now we should have gone for tries, but at the time I thought the right decision was made,” O’Brien added.