Tommy O'Brien's importance even greater as James Lowe plays his last game in Dublin

Lowe’s departure is the headline act in a summer of change. For O’Brien, his exit will resonate.

MORE IMPORTANT: Tommy O'Brien with his 3 awards, the Bank of Ireland Men’s Player of the Year, the Nissan Supporters Player of the Year and the the Optimum Nutrition Tackle of the Year. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile.

When the final whistle blew, and Leinster had done just enough to see off the Stormers in the URC semi-final two weeks ago, James Lowe lingered on the Aviva Stadium turf one last time with his children to take it all in.

The winger had just played his last game in the stadium, for club or for country. Rumours had by then solidified into accepted fact that contract negotiations with the club and the union had broken down and that he would be leaving for Japan.

He confirmed as much days after that game with an emotional Instagram post and it all sets the stage for one last performance this Friday when the province faces the Bulls in a repeat of last year’s URC decider in Croke Park.

Lowe’s departure is the headline act in a summer of change and no few farewells across the Irish game with Leinster and the rest of the provinces appearing to be in the business of tightening belts. For Tommy O’Brien, his exit will resonate.

O’Brien was entering his first year of the academy when Lowe arrived from the Chiefs in New Zealand back in 2017. One was 19 the other 24, but the age gap was never a barrier given the new arrival’s open personality.

The younger of them remembers skipping a college lecture to go to lunch with Lowe soon after the Kiwi’s arrival. He remembers a man who had no real ego, someone who plugged in seamlessly to his new life on the far side of the world.

“He's always been very sound to any of the young lads. Probably brings something different to what original or normal Irish wingers would, just his ability to beat people, take people one-on-one.

“He's obviously always had the confidence in himself, so to back himself and kind of show how important that is for yourself is something that he's given across to all the young guys.”

Lowe exits with a sense of unfinished business given he had gone on record to describe next year’s World Cup as his guiding light before everything went south, but he leaves behind a phenomenal body of work.

Seventeen tries in 45 Test appearances doesn’t even begin to explain his importance to Ireland, and a club record 71 tries in 100 appearances for Leinster brooks no argument as to his finishing skills.

But he was always about much more than that.

Never the fastest or the tallest, he brought a relentlessness in his ball carry that meant he could bulldoze through a tackle or kick his legs for a vital extra metre or two even when caught. That was just the start of it.

In Irish terms, he has been unique. Some if it his colleagues could ape, but not all.

“There's certain parts of your game that you're going to have to lean into,” said O’Brien. “I'm not 110 kilos, so I'm probably not going to be running over lads like Lowey, but his ability to beat people one-on-one and his ability to offload, those are things you can work on.

“Obviously, his kicking game has been massive. He'll be one of the very best kicking wingers that Ireland have had for a long time, just sharing that load and taking a bit of the burden off nines and tens. It's something that all us wingers have been trying to recreate a little bit.”

Tommy O'Brien scores a try. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Lowe’s experience shows again that professional sport is a business. His bio is nowhere to be seen on the IRFU’s recently redesigned website. Time moves on and others will have to step up and fill the breach left behind.

O’Brien has made his name mostly on the opposite wing but there’s no denying that he is one of those wings ideally positioned to take on a greater importance now that he seems to have finally left years of injury torment behind him.

A minor niggle has kept him out of the last two knockout games but O’Brien’s form up to that has been so good that he was named Leinster’s player of the year by his colleagues at the annual awards last week.

Now 28, he was elevated to the squad’s leadership group at the start of the season and, a difficult opening Six Nations night in Paris aside, he has largely taken the opportunities handed to him by Andy Farrell as well.

It’s amazing what a clean bill of health can do.

“It's my first season, touch wood, where I've gone through a season without any proper injuries, so just being able to consistently back up games, back up your learnings and not feel like you're starting again, getting back up to speed is something that's really stuck to me massively.

“Then getting the exposure of some of the Irish games and the levels that you're playing out there and being able to bring that back in [to Leinster] just points to the difference that I've been trying to tell myself, that whenever I get exposed to those Irish games it’s knowing that's the level, and when you're back here don't just drop down to the club level.”