O’Brien embracing senior role as Leinster’s next generation emerges

Having previously found himself surrounded by experienced figures for the majority of his time in the set-up, Eadestown’s Jimmy O'Brien is now in a position where he is one of the more senior players within the Leinster back line.

While there are five backs at the disposal of head coach Leo Cullen who are older than O’Brien (who turns 30 next month), only three of that cohort have made more senior appearances for the eastern province than the former Newbridge College student.

A debutant back on November 23, 2018 in a Pro14 game against Ospreys at the RDS Arena, O’Brien will pick up his 121st cap this evening when Leinster return to the same venue for its grand reopening under the guise of the Laya Arena in a United Rugby Championship clash with Cardiff.

Whereas the likes of All Blacks duo Jordie Barrett and Rieko Ioane have been drafted in on short-term deals in the past two seasons, the fact the World Cup is less than 12 months away meant there wasn’t going to be any major overseas recruits for the current season.

This means there will be a number of players in the squad who are part of the province’s academy or have only just graduated to the senior ranks and O’Brien is doing his utmost to ensure these youthful arrivals feel at home.

“It seems this year we’ll have a good few young lads playing. You’re just trying to help them. You turn into a senior player pretty quick when you don’t think, you start getting on. You’re trying to help them as much as you can. I try to help any of the wingers or the full-backs, the same with Hugo [Keenan] or Tommy [O’Brien],” O’Brien remarked at a Leinster media briefing in UCD earlier this week.

“We all try to help any of the lads who are playing. Even down in South Africa, myself and Hugo would be talking to Todd [Lawlor] a bit.

“When he was picked at full-back, just help him with small things or if he had anything he wanted to ask us. Trying to get them up to speed as quickly as possible and if they have any questions being pretty open to it and helping them out.” 

Of course, there was one new signing by Leinster ahead of the current season – albeit he is someone who was part of their squad in the past. After making 37 senior appearances from 2016 to 2018, Athy native Joey Carbery made the switch from Leinster to arch rivals Munster at just 22 years of age.

He proceeded to spend six seasons in Limerick (a spell that was severely hampered by injury), before making the move to Top 14 outfit Bordeaux Begles in 2024. During his two years at the club, Bordeaux captured back-to-back European Champions Cup crowns with Carbery playing some role in both of these successful campaigns.

However, having missed out on the match day 23 for their final win over Northampton Saints in 2025, he was sidelined with an anterior cruciate ligament injury when Yannick Bru’s charges defeated Leinster in their latest European showpiece 12 months later.

He had been strongly linked with a switch back to the Blues before he became a long-term absentee, but the move still went ahead and Carbery is currently completing the final stages of his rehab at Leinster Rugby HQ.

Despite missing out on playing first-team rugby with the 30-year-old during his initial spell with Leinster, O’Brien did get to feature alongside Carbery on a couple of occasions for Ireland over the course of the 2022 Autumn Nations Series.

Although he may end up offering competition to him for the full-back spot in the team (he has switched between 10 and 15 on a number of occasions in the past), O’Brien is glad his fellow county man is back amongst the Leinster squad again.

“We were actually only talking. I think he left when he was real young, like 22 or something, from Leinster. I would have played a small bit with him in Ireland then when I got a few caps at the start. It’ll be great to have him back and he’s been training a small bit. Hopefully he’ll be back in the next couple of weeks. It will be great to see him play.” 

Although he is some way off Carbery’s international caps tally of 38 at the moment, this summer did see O’Brien enhancing his test match experience.

Coming into it with 11 senior outings to his name (having also represented his country at U20 and 7s level), O’Brien was selected to start all three games Ireland played during the Nations Championship Southern Hemisphere Series. After completing the full 80 minutes on the right wing in victories against Australia and Japan on July 4 and July 11 respectively, he featured for 48 minutes on the left wing when Andy Farrell’s men lost to New Zealand in Eden Park on July 18.

While this summer programme ended in a disappointing fashion with a 40-21 reversal against the All Blacks, O’Brien was thrilled with his extensive involvements for Ireland in these tests and he is hoping the new campaign can help him to push on with his country as well as his province.

“I was pretty delighted with how it went. Obviously frustrating in the last game with the result, but I started all three games. Heading in I wasn’t really sure what game time I was going to get, so to start all three games I was delighted. Hopefully this season I can stay injury free and kick on from that,” O’Brien added.

“The end of the season when I look back on it, I was pretty happy. There was obviously frustrations [missing out on some big games with Leinster]. I think any player goes through a season with frustrations, unless you’re getting picked every single week.”