O'Brien a timely deputy for Leinster in Keenan's absence

Hugo Keenan’s absence for the back end of this club season was always going to leave a hole but it is slightly less of a headache now that Jimmy O’Brien is back fit and primed to wear the No.15 jersey.

ABLE DEPUTY: Jimmy O'Brien of Leinster receives a pass from Sam Prendergast during the United Rugby Championship quarter-final match between Leinster and Ulster. Pic: Ramsey Cardy, Sportsfile

Fri, 14 Jun, 2024 - 07:36

Brendan O'Brien

Of all the times and places a head coach might choose to be without his world-class full-back then Loftus Versfeld, at altitude, and against a side likely to pepper the back field with kicks has to be right up there with the last of them.

O’Brien missed almost five months of the season, from mid-December to early May, with a neck injury and he has had no shortage of jobs to do since returning off the bench against Northampton Saints in the Champions Cup semi-final at Croke Park.

Leo Cullen has posted him on the wing, at outside-centre and, for the last two games against Connacht and Ulster, at full-back where he hadn’t started in a year. There’s no doubt that Keenan’s detour to Olympic sevens duties informed those last two postings.

Ask O’Brien about this ability not just to fill a shirt but to excel in it and he shrugs it off as just something he does. If only it were so simple. Cullen himself was more effusive in his praise for this tendency when asked about him recently.

“He’s multi-skilled, he played a lot at ten when he was younger. There is a lot to be said for young players playing ten, outside backs, it gives you just a different view, the responsibility to step-up, command people around you, get them to go where you need them to go.”

The Leinster head coach picked out the speed O’Brien showed in scoring a superb try – against an admittedly defeated and tired Connacht opposition – at the RDS two weekends ago as evidence of the skills that the Dubliner brings to the table.

Playing last man back in the Pretoria altitude this weekend, against a Bulls team that makes no apologies for its tendency to put boot to ball, will ask something more again of him and he has already noted the extra flight time in training since landing in the city.

“You can see it definitely travels a little bit further. Yeah, just probably give yourself a little bit more space. They’ve a couple of long kickers this weekend as well so you’re probably a little bit deeper than you usually are.

“I’ve chatted to some of the lads who have played down here. Even earlier in the season against the Lions, it was up at altitude. Frawls [Ciaran Frawley] was playing full back that day, we were talking about how the ball travelled and stuff like that.”

Speaking of travel, just getting to Pretoria has been a challenge in itself.

It was 9pm on Monday by the time the last of the 45-strong party arrived at the team hotel beside Loftus Versfeld. O’Brien was among a group that had to contend with a nine-hour stopover in Dubai on the way over.

Monday, normally a full day, was written off while Tuesday was restricted to the lightest of training runs at a nearby school, but then this isn’t the first time in recent years that Leinster have had to contend with challenging journeys.

Their opening Champions Cup tie in December of 2022 against Racing 92 in Le Havre turned into an odyssey with a fog delay at Dublin Airport followed by a diversion to Paris, a failed attempt to secure a coach and then a fleet of taxis that completed the 145-mile road trip.

It was 11pm on the Friday night before they made their hotel for a game kicking off at 2pm the next day but the visitors still went on to crush their Parisian ‘hosts’ on a scoreline of 42-10. There was no panic from the players then, or now.

“Lads took it in their stride, took flights and you get here when you get here. There is no point using it as an excuse. It is what it is, you do what you have to get here. Same with that Racing thing, it didn’t matter when you showed up.

“You still have to show up and play well and put in a performance. It was kind of just accepted it was going to be tough to get down to South Africa at very short notice after the quarter-final against Ulster. We’re not using it as an excuse, it would be tough regardless.”