HE HAS HAD his fair share of frustration with injuries in the recent past, but Leinster’s Tommy O’Brien is now ‘feeling in a really good spot’ after finally making his first European start in the Aviva Stadium last Friday.

After previously making four appearances off the bench for the province in the competition, Dublin native O’Brien was given the nod on the right-wing when Glasgow Warriors paid a visit to Lansdowne Road six days ago for a European Champions Cup quarter-final.

Had it not been for a number of significant spells on the sideline – he has suffered injuries to his knee, ankle and hamstring within the last three years – a starting opportunity in the Champions Cup might have come his way a lot sooner. Yet four consecutive outings in the United Rugby Championship helped to put O’Brien in the frame for selection and he marked the occasion by bagging a first half try in a convincing 52-0 win over Glasgow.

“I am feeling in a really good spot. I have five or six games on the bounce and I think your body just adjusts to rugby. Your first one [back] you are always unbelievably sore and your body is like, ‘What the hell are you doing to me?’ That’s probably when you are most likely to pick up little injuries, in the first few games or training sessions back,” O’Brien acknowledged at a Leinster media briefing earlier this week.

“My body is getting battle hardened and it’s just a knowledge within myself of knowing when I can push it and really open up, and when I feel a bit stiff and sore and need to box smarter.”

Although he didn’t graduate from the Leinster Academy until the summer of 2020 – alongside current Ireland internationals Dan Sheehan and Ryan Baird – O’Brien made his senior debut for the province at outside centre in a relentless 54-42 victory over Ulster at the RDS in the Pro14 back on 20 December, 2019.

The former Blackrock College student is set to face the same interprovincial opposition in the Aviva this Saturday in the United Rugby Championship. While Leinster didn’t concede a single point in either of their last two games – knockout European clashes with Harlequins and Glasgow – the Blues’ defence could be tested by an Ulster side that have amassed a combined tally of 133 points across their last four competitive games.

This included a 31-point haul in a Champions Cup Round of 16 defeat away to Bordeaux-Begles last Sunday week and O’Brien is expecting the resolve of Leinster – who are currently eight points clear at the URC summit – to be severely tested at Irish Rugby HQ.

“I feel like they have turned a corner in the last few weeks, when they had a great comeback win against the Stormers. They went very well against Bordeaux, scored some great tries,” O’Brien added.

“They have a good few guys who have just come back from injury, especially in the backline. So their backs are humming again. They look like they are enjoying their rugby again and it will be a big test.”

After injuring his hamstring in the act of scoring a try away to Edinburgh in the opening round of this season’s URC, O’Brien was ultimately ruled out of the Emerging Ireland Tour of South Africa last October.

Simon Easterby was at the helm for that three-game visit to the southern hemisphere and the former Scarlets flanker subsequently called the 26-year-old into the Ireland senior squad in the build-up to their round four showdown with France in this year’s Six Nations.

Although it didn’t lead to a Test debut for O’Brien, he got a sense of what life is like in an Ireland camp in the middle of a Championship campaign. He had also featured for Ireland ‘A’ in an international duel with England ‘A’ at Ashton Gate in Bristol on 23 February and will now be hoping that a strong end to the season with Leinster can help him to seal a spot in the Irish travelling party for summer internationals against Georgia and Portugal in July.

“Any rugby player growing up always dreams of playing for Ireland, so that’s definitely an ambition of mine. I would have set out at the start of the year. I would have been frustrated at missing that Emerging Ireland tour at the start of the year because of injury,” O’Brien added.

“Managed to play a few games recently and got called into camp. Got my first taste of it during the Six Nations. I would love to play in the summer, but the way you do that is playing and impressing for Leinster. The opportunity of getting to some finals and going well is the stuff you dream of.”

Daire Walsh