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OTommy 'Brien investing in himself as he chases Irish dream

Dec 20,2024

All Tommy O'Brien wants for Christmas is a bit of luck.

The 26-year-old is likely to be named in Leinster’s team for Saturday’s BKT United Rugby Championship meeting with Connacht at Aviva Stadium, a game which he hopes can kick-start his season.

The Blackrock man hasn’t had much luck with injuries in his career to date, but after scoring four tries in 11 appearances last season, it looked like he had finally caught a break in September, when he was picked in Simon Easterby’s Emerging Ireland squad.

Finally, it was a chance to get some face time with the Ireland coaches, but that excitement lasted just a couple of days, when he tore his hamstring in the process of scoring a try, just 17 minutes into Leinster’s season-opener away to Edinburgh.

"I thought I was off to South Africa for the next few weeks and I’m back at home, rehabbing and icing.

"It goes from being an exciting few weeks to not so much. I guess it’s in the past now. I guess when it first happens, it’s pretty bleak but when after that you’re on the road to recovery."

If there is a small consolation, O’Brien does take confidence in the fact that he was on the radar of the Ireland coaches.

O'Brien injured his hamstring while running in to score a try in Leinster's Round 1 win against Edinburgh

And having seen how quickly things happened for his team-mate Gus McCarthy this year, the versatile back remains confident he can catch Easterby’s eye with a run of games.

"It’s amazing, Gus at the end of last year was probably fifth choice hooker and then plays a couple games, plays fantastically for Leinster and gets rewarded with going into the Ireland camp, he was class in a couple of those Irish games as well.

"I guess it is putting your best foot forward and playing as well as you can for Leinster and if you’re playing well for Leinster, there is a decent chance you’ll get into an Ireland squad.

"It’s probably been my issue, just getting a run of games, obviously it would have been in the Irish camp for the first time, it was Emerging Ireland, but you saw a few guys kick on in the Autumn Nations [Series].

"We’ve got Champions Cup games over the next while and a few Interpros as well. Go well in them and fingers crossed can get into the Six Nations squad," he added.

The former Ireland Under-20 international has gone to great lengths to address his injury issues.

Last summer, he even spent his own money to fly to Qatar to work with physio Enda King, which came off the recommendation of Johnny Sexton and Robbie Henshaw, where they worked on identifying inefficiencies in his knees and hamstrings, while he has even started to consider what lifestyle changes he could make to improve his game.

Leinster's Tommy O'Brien (r), pictured with Leah Tarpey (l) and Dan Sheehan (c) as Just Eat extend their partnership with Leinster Rugby for an additional two years.

"After this one, I was thinking of everything, I heard about that and was thinking 'Do I need to get rid of a manual car maybe, and get an automatic?’

"We looked into everything, [Enda King] got me scanned and made sure there was nothing else there. We’ve looked into everything in great depth and hopefully on top of it now.

"I remember talking to Johnny [Sexton] a good bit about it when he was in Leinster and he always raved about it, how it was a great investment in himself.

"You go over, he [King] gets you five more games out of a season by preventing an injury, it’s 100% worthwhile an investment. So that was the way I viewed it, it was a very interesting experience so I definitely got a lot out of that.

"I guess when you have a lot of repeat injuries, I guess what drives you back is the feeling I have that I belong at the highest level.

"It’s just a case of making sure I get my body to allow me to compete, it’s just a case of having the belief I have that I can perform but giving myself a chance to put myself forward for selection, hopefully be selected.

"It’s mad when you play a few games how you see the game faster, everything slows down for you, so I guess that is definitely a driving force, I do belong, so I just need to get my body right and hopefully kick on and play international rugby."