The ‘proud’ feeling that helped Tommy O’Brien cope with Ireland setback and the target now set for ‘pinnacle of my career’
Tommy O'Brien, centre and inset, at last week's Ireland Canterbury jersey launch in Dublin
For a man whose rugby career is in a hurry, Tommy O’Brien was an oasis of calm last week when reflecting on the cruel end to his inspiring breakthrough Test season with Andy Farrell’s Ireland. His reasoning was logical.
If the groin injury sustained in the first half of this year’s United Rugby Championship final with Leinster versus the Bulls at Croke Park had struck at the same stadium against the same showpiece opposition 12 months earlier, he would have been distraught.
Back then, there was no credit in the bank as he had still to be capped by his country. A year on, though, and the 28-year-old’s perspective was very different. He had now played nine times for Ireland, scored away to England at Twickenham and added two more in the Triple Crown-clinching win at home to Scotland.
There was also the inking of a new deal at Leinster, further steeling his sudden rise up the pecking order and leaving him feeling that he could shrug off the unfortunate Friday night groin injury that prevented him from boarding the plane to the southern hemisphere for Ireland’s Nations Championship campaign versus Australia, Japan and New Zealand.
“I should hopefully be in my peak…”
So quickly has his reputation risen from the obscurity of the club game that he was chosen to help Ireland launch their latest Canterbury jersey, and he hopes his performances in this latest look can get him rebooked on another flight south – the one taking Ireland to the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.
“It’s something that only comes around every four years so it’s hard, I’ll be 29 at it so I should hopefully be in my peak rather than being 33 for the next one,” he told Planet Rugby, looking on the bright side two and a half months after Farrell was forced into an 11th-hour ticket name change.
“It’s something that I am thinking is going to be the pinnacle of my career, and a lot of people are in a similar boat; they are really focused on this being our best chance. We have got a really good team and we are just going to go all in and make it hopefully as special as possible.
“It was such an amazing experience in Six Nations, just getting a taste of playing these massive games as well as November,” he added, looking back on a season of rich achievement in the Ireland green. “It’s funny, a few of my friends are living down in Australia and they were texting, asking when I was going to be down. The flight was on Sunday and then I obviously ended up not making the flight, but I was saying it was different.
“If it happened last year before I made my debut and before those Georgia and Portugal games, I would have been even more gutted because I hadn’t made my debut and it just hadn’t happened for me yet.
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“But last season I played the most rugby I had ever played in a year, and I got nine caps for Ireland, so it felt like I was involved. It was really disappointing to miss this (Nations Championship trip), but at the same time I have had a great year and I can be proud of that.
“I’ve nine caps to my name whereas the year before I would have been, ‘I still haven’t crossed that bridge, still haven’t made my Irish debut’. That was the way I was looking at it and it’s obviously a massive 12 or 14 months ahead, but I have now had the summer to get my body as good as possible and get myself ready for what is hopefully going to be a huge season.”
What did for O’Brien’s summer plan was an awkward landing on the Croke Park turf when contesting aerial ball against the Bulls. That was a painful impact and a moment that didn’t end well, but it was an aerial prowess that had helped put him there in the first place, starring for Leinster in a commanding way and impressing the Irish higher-ups.
“The way the game is going, the aerial battle is just so big at the moment,” said O’Brien, reflecting on what he has focused on in pre-season to take his game onto a new level. “Like, a momentum shift when you can catch some of those box kicks when you are chasing them or in the opposite end diffuse them because they can give massive energy to the opposition.
“That’s something I am constantly working on. Just a bit more X-factor and beating my man, it’s probably something that Irish wingers, we work unbelievably hard, very smart but maybe James Lowe, probably why he had such a great career and was so loved here was he was able to beat his man so well.
“So that’s something definitely that is a big work on for myself and then just keep going, hopefully playing to my strengths and by defensive strengths and just keep that going.”
O’Brien is a fan of the law that has gotten rid of the blockers and opened up the skies for the jumpers. “It’s massive. At the start they [the referees] were calling all the knock-ons and now it’s just a bit of a free-for-all. Unless it is something clear and obvious, they are letting it play which is great; it’s broken ball and it’s great ball to attack off.
“It was definitely a challenge for us wingers at the start because we used to have a nice little block and would be nice and safe up in the air, but now you have just got to fly into it and it’s kind of about how committed you are. The more committed man, by and large, should come out winning it.”
Last week’s jersey launch had O’Brien rubbing shoulders with two of his men’s team colleagues and three from the women’s side, an evening of modelling and music and mingling with some fans at a Guinness facility on Dublin’s southside. He loved the range, loved being involved in all the hoopla. “It’s definitely cool,” he enthused, delighted to have been chosen for the prestigious gig.
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“You think back as a kid, and I think it was in 2007; up to then they had the really nice green jersey and then they changed to, like, a dark green and I remember being disgusted. But now it’s kind of cool to see what is going on behind the scenes… I’m a fan of this one anyway.”
Now that he is part of the international fabric, collecting shirts is a pursuit he is enjoying. “I like mine, but you try and get to swap sometimes after games to collect a bit of a collection and one or two have been framed,” he explained.
“My favourite jersey? Probably from the England game. That was pretty cool where I came in (for the injured Lowe), and the Scotland game was pretty special as well. I swapped with Darcy Graham, but after the France game I didn’t go into the changing room. I was a bit low after that one. I wasn’t going anywhere there, but hopefully there are more good days to come.”
- The Canterbury Ireland 2026/27 home kit is now available and can be purchased through Intersport Elverys and Canterbury.com