Speed king O'Brien finally on fast track to Ireland back three

with Jamie Osborne picking up a shoulder injury and Hugo Keenan absent until the New Year, Ireland are dipping much deeper into the depth chart.

Ireland’s Tommy O'Brien celebrates scoring his sides 6th try of the match. Pic: Billy Stickland, Inpho

Andy Farrell has contrasting conundrums this week when it comes to his back three.

Jamie Osborne picked up what seems to be a dislocated shoulder against Japan on Saturday and, with Hugo Keenan absent until the New Year, Ireland are suddenly dipping much deeper into the depth chart there.

Jacob Stockdale and Jimmy O’Brien are the two frontrunners that we know for sure to be fit. The other option would be Mack Hansen who, Farrell said at the weekend, is close to a return after his own injury issues.

O’Brien appears to be the best fit having played at 15 during the summer against Georgia and Portugal and more recently with his province. A talented, versatile player, O’Brien fell down the pecking order with Leinster and Ireland for a spell there.

This could be a huge opportunity for him.

The issue for Farrell when it comes to his two wing slots is who to leave out. James Lowe comes back into the reckoning after sitting out Saturday’s win against Japan. A regular, Lowe was one of the few players to shine in Chicago against the All Blacks.

Mack Hansen is, according to Farrell, nearing a return from injury but both Tommy O’Brien and, to a lesser extent, Jacob Stockdale gave a good account of themselves against the Japanese and will hope for a role against Australia this time around.

O’Brien brings a speed that can only really be appreciated in the flesh. No other Irish winger can match it and he finished his home Test debut two days ago with a try and a couple of turnovers to boot.

Now 27, injuries crippled O’Brien’s career and delayed his Test debut until the summer just gone when he featured against Georgia and Portugal. Chicago brought another opportunity but he never really got into the game at Soldier Field.

“Yeah, that was definitely a thing we talked about afterwards in the review. It probably was the most frustrating, we felt like we didn’t fire any shots. We didn’t give a good account of ourselves because we know what we’re capable of and what we can do.

“So, we just said in the review afterwards that we couldn’t do the same thing again. We couldn’t be looking back on it and think we didn’t fire any shots. So, thankfully the ball came our way a little bit more this time and maybe I went looking for it a little bit more.” 

No Irish player carried more than O’Brien. His four line breaks was the most on either side. All the more impressive in a team that, apart from the final quarter when Japan faded, struggled to get its attack going to any real degree.

“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 and then you get in 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 and we talked about wanting to play a bit more expansive and inspire the nation to get behind us.

“It was disappointing [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 kickstart something similar here.” 

 That didn’t happen, but O’Brien did more than most in the attempt.