"I felt like I belonged" - Tommy O'Brien: Leinster wing thriving after Ireland home debut

O'Brien was a stand-out back from the Ireland age-grade system, with a handful of appearances in the U20s set-up across 2017 and 2018. The Blackrock native looked destined for a fast-track into the green jersey at the infancy of his career, however a string of injuries would delay his eventual Test debut as O'Brien overcame knee, hamstring and back issues throughout the last few seasons.

Having patiently battled back to full fitness, O'Brien was finally unleashed for his Ireland debut in the Summer, with vacancies opened up by the absent British & Irish Lions. O'Brien bagged two tries against both Georgia and Portugal this past July, before his globe-trotting journey took him over to Chicago for Ireland's Autumn Series opening week defeat to the All Blacks.

After a trio of Tests overseas, O'Brien was delighted to achieve his home debut, which he marked with a stunning solo try in the closing moments. The winger shared how he had plenty of family in the Aviva to witness his try, with nine tickets secured for the Autumn Series clash with Japan. O'Brien expressed how he savoured the moment of bringing a capacity Ireland crowd to their feet.

"I did enjoy it. It’s my first one in the Aviva, my first time playing for Ireland at home, so that was pretty special. I had some family out. My grandparents came out, they haven’t been to a game since I was probably 18. They’re proper glory supporters; they came out for the Irish game! No, I’m only messing. They’re always there, so that was pretty cool.”

“I was having a look during the anthems to see if I could spot anyone. But I didn’t, which was probably a good thing. It might have sent me over the edge. But it was good, really special.”

“I gave a nice little fist pump into the crowd afterwards, which was cool. But I was blowing hard then getting back. Sammy [Prendergast] gave me a nice 50-metre run-in so I had to give it all. I couldn’t get caught there. I was blowing when I was jogging back but it was pretty cool.”

“Me and Sammy were on the same page, I could see he was going across but he didn’t have the wheels to take it the whole way, so I dropped under him and he knew what I was going to do. It was nice to be on the same page like that.”

Reflecting upon his journey to represent his nation in front of a packed home stadium, O'Brien did not deny how this opportunity could well have come sooner had he not suffered a litany of injuries. The UCD club star admitted that it does make the home debut all the more sweeter, as O'Brien had to battle through hell and high water to make his maiden Test run out at the home of Irish Rugby.

"It does definitely, and I'm also probably a lot more mature than I would have been, maybe if I was 22 or 23 or whatever. So that probably helps me in terms of the thing you talked about earlier, about not being as nervous coming into the games. I feel like I've worked very hard, I've had so many downs, so I just enjoy these kind of experiences, in these days."

For a player that was making their first home cap for their country, O'Brien held a genuine calmness about his on-field actions with his efforts rightfully seeing him collect the Player of the Match Award. Seamlessly slotting into Andy Farrell's explosive back-three, O'Brien linked up with Jacob Stockdale and his Leinster teammate Jamie Osborne to form devastating trio that Eddie Jones' side could not contain.

O'Brien explained how he holds quite a succinct and straight-forward mantra as he approaches his personal career milestones, being that of 'it's just another game'. The young wing was able to ground his emotions ahead of the match, with no doubt contributed to his stunning on-field display against Japan.

“I wouldn’t say I found it [international rugby] harder. I guess when you’re in, it’s another rugby game, you’ve been doing it your whole life. I’ve been playing it since I was four years old. It’s kind of what I’ve been telling myself before I go out, it’s just another game of rugby.

“Obviously you want to be able to feed off the crowd and the magnitude of everything, and allow yourself to go to another level in terms of finding stuff within you physically, that you didn’t realise you had and using the crowd in that capacity. But in terms of weighing on you and nervousness, I’ve actually been okay thankfully. Yeah really enjoying myself so far.”

O'Brien did not down-play the fact that he felt like he belonged upon the Test match stage. After a Summer tour between Tbilisi and Lisbon and the opening Autumnal excursion 'across the pond', O'Brien now has a taste for the Test level in Dublin and is eyeing up the subsequent clashes against Australia and the incoming double world champion Springboks.

“The summer tour was great to get in and get a taste of it, and then the last few weeks were a step up in terms of the level. The All Blacks game was very physical but I felt like I belonged at that level. I didn’t feel like I was shocked or anything like that, but it’s just the margins are very small and you’ve got to nail every little small moment.”

“It’s annoying, because during the week we see it clicking in training, so we know we have it in us. It’s just about putting it on display at the weekend. There’s a lot of familiarity with myself and playing with guys from Leinster, then you get in [to camp] and you’ve played with a few guys over the Summer as well. There’s very few players I wouldn’t actually have played with before, so you’re trying to get to grips with how they play We talked about wanting to play a more expansive and inspire the nation to get behind us.

“It was disappointing last week [against New Zealand] but we talked about 2021 when we played Japan. That was a really brilliant performance and that was almost the start of that run to the World Cup, where the nation was right behind us. They got really excited about us so we wanted to try and kick-start something similar here today.”

"We'll see what happens [with selection]. But yeah, Australia and South Africa, it doesn't get much harder and much better than that."