Munster's Seán O'Brien appreciates chance to play in 'these big, cool GAA stadiums'

The momentum of O'Brien's promising first season with Munster was halted when he suffered an injury setback in October. 

Seán O'Brien returned from injury to scores tries for Munster against Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors recently. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie

Munster winger Seán O’Brien is hoping for a big finish to the season after spending four months on the sideline with a hamstring injury after coming back from the Emerging Ireland tour to South Africa.

The 26-year old announced his return with a try against Edinburgh and followed up with a brace in the loss away to Glasgow Warriors at the weekend.

And having played plenty of Gaelic football growing up in Mullingar, he’s really looking forward to hitting the ground against Connacht at MacHale Park in Castlebar next Saturday afternoon.

“Obviously having played a lot of football in Ireland growing up and then obviously going down the rugby path, you realise you won't get to play in a lot of these big, cool GAA stadiums. So it's nice to get stuff like this and playing in Croke Park earlier in the season was an unbelievable experience,” said O’Brien.

“I think it's good to kind of spread the matches around the provinces, to make it easier for fans in other counties for whom it's probably a bit more difficult for them to get to the game.

"And I don't know how much more of it we'll see, but I think as long as the GAA are on board and stuff, I don't see why it couldn't happen once or twice a season.” 

Saturday’s game has added resonance for him as he played nine times for Connacht after a stint in their academy, having come through the ranks at Mullingar RFC and then Clontarf RFC.

“I've got a lot of fond memories up there. I was coming up to the academy there, it's the hard years, the grind, but I really enjoyed it. I'm grateful for them to give me that chance when I was kind of coming up and uncertain what my rugby future was going to look like,” added O’Brien, who is likely to meet up with a few former Galway housemates this weekend.

“Jordan Duggan's still up there now and I lived with Oisín Dowling for a year as well, so I'd still be familiar enough with a good few faces up there anyway.” 

O’Brien, who spent a couple of successful seasons with Exeter Chiefs, enjoyed a great maiden season with Munster last year, scoring five tries and making 20 appearances, so it was no surprise when he got the Emerging Ireland call to go to South Africa.

However, his progress was halted in October when he suffered an injury set-back.

“I tore my hamstring in training a couple of days after we got back from South Africa, and then had a bit of a... I suppose things were going well and just had a kind of a freak one where it re-tore again, just while I was kind of doing some speed exposure stuff.

“So yeah, it just kind of ended up having to be a bit more patient with it then. Annoying obviously for that to happen at any stage, but I suppose even more so in training, something pretty innocuous. It was an innocuous thing that happened.” 

He finally made his return against Edinburgh and made an instant impact, following it up last weekend against the reigning champions in Glasgow.

“Yeah, it was class. I got 40 minutes against Edinburgh a couple of weeks beforehand as well, so to get that under the belt was kind of just a big confidence boost.

“Going into Glasgow last week, having to go the full 80 just to know I have that in the legs and lungs, but yeah, I think it was four months or just over I was out, so I was itching to get back. Although we lost, it was just very enjoyable to be back out on the pitch again with the lads,” he added.