Ireland's Jamie Osborne looking forward to home comforts in Japan showdown

The 23-year-old British & Irish Lions tourist will earn his 10th cap this weekend having retained the full-back’s jersey from last weekend’s autumn opener in Chicago.

HOME COMFORTS: Jamie Osborne during an Ireland training session. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady.

In terms of bouncing back from a sobering defeat, this Saturday’s visit of Japan to Dublin’s Aviva Stadium ticks a lot of boxes for Ireland full-back Jamie Osborne.

The 23-year-old British & Irish Lions tourist will earn his 10th cap this weekend on home soil having retained the full-back’s jersey from last weekend’s autumn opener in Chicago.

Though there has been jet lag and disappointment to overcome from the Stateside loss to New Zealand, Osborne is eager to return to more familiar ground and help Ireland get back to winning ways against Eddie Jones’s lower-ranked Japanese.

“I don't think it's too tricky. Any time you lose a game, I think the next game is you just want to get back on the pitch as soon as possible and try and right a few wrongs,” Osborne said.

“I think everyone's looking forward to getting back out in front of a home crowd for the first time in a while as well.”

Among those few wrongs is undoubtedly a need to get Ireland’s attack flowing again. Zero line breaks was a stark headline from Solider Field but the feeling within the camp is that the potency with ball in hand that was lacking against the All Blacks is not far from clicking back into place.

Certainly the evidence of last Saturday night was that for better execution there may have been a different narrative to the Chicago review.

“We definitely felt like we missed a few opportunities, even just to pull the trigger and get the ball into space,” Osborne said.

“That's something that, as backs, as a collective, we're probably really disappointed with. Also, being able to take the opportunities when they come is important. So, yeah, we'll try and work on that.” 

Osborne was involved in a particularly agonising moment of what might have been as Stuart McCloskey’s offload that would have set him free came to nothing and he admitted: “We were both talking about it after, we both saw the name in lights, I think. It just didn't work.” Similarly in the second half, when a potential try went begging as Osborne spilled a Jack Crowley pass.

“Look, we talked about just being able to... I need to be able to catch the ball on the line. The pass maybe was a fraction hard as well from his point of view, but both of us together, we need to be able to take those. And then after that, we looked at it as a team and what we can do to ensure that we don't concede a turnover in that position.”

Osborne addressed another work on for the Ireland backline, aerial contests, as adaptations continue in the wake of World Rugby’s law changes around contestable kicks and outlawing defensive escort runners to allow the chaser a clear route to the battle off the ground.

“Anyone really in the backfield, we'd spend a good bit of time during the week trying to win, get up and catch the ball at the highest point.

“As a team, we're definitely working more on the players in and around the contests and what they can do to ensure that the ball comes back on our side, because a lot of the time, a good contest, they're basically 50-50s all the time now. It's rare enough that you're able to get clean catches.” 

Plenty of room for improvement, then, and an opposing back three Osborne believes will test Ireland’s defensive mettle in Dublin on Saturday.

“Yeah, they're very dangerous and they've got great feet, especially in the wide channels. And they like to move the ball to width.

“They play a bit deeper than we would and a bit wider, so they'll throw it to width, they'll get the ball into the 15s and attack square there. We have to be better defensively than we were at the weekend in terms of getting after them. But it'll be definitely a challenge.”