Conor O'Brien (born 2 February 1996) is an Irish former rugby union player who played for Leinster.

GAA and family

Growing up in Westmeath, O'Brien played more Gaelic sports than rugby union until well into his teens. He represented Westmeath at

hurling Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...

up to under-16 level, and represented Westmeath in

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

all the way to Minor level. His father Garrett was captain of the Offaly team which won the 1988 All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championship, the only such victory in the county's history. Conor got into rugby by playing youths rugby for

Mullingar RFC Mullingar RFC is an Irish rugby team based in Mullingar, County Westmeath, playing in Men's Division 2A of the Leinster League The Leinster League is the second tier of rugby in Leinster, behind the Leinster Senior League. It has five divisio ...

Early rugby career

Conor took up rugby as an 11 year with Mullingar RFC, he tried out many positions including back-row before finally settling at out-half. Conor was part of the successful Midlands team that won the Shane Horgan Cup in 2012, in the same season he also played out-half in the Mullingar U17 team that won the Culliton Cup scoring two tries in the final against Navan. He was the out-half on the Leinster U18 team that won the interprovincial title in 2012/13 which lead to his selection for Ireland U18 in four matches against Italy, England, Scotland and France. He was selected on both the Leinster U18 and Ireland U18 teams the following season, this time at centre.

Leinster

O'Brien joined the

Leinster Rugby Leinster Rugby ( ga, Rugbaí Laighean) is one of the four professional provincial rugby union teams from the island of Ireland and the most successful Irish team domestically. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby ...

academy ahead of the 2016–17 season, during which he also won an All-Ireland League title with Clontarf. O'Brien is currently in his third and final year of the academy. He made his debut early in the 2017–18 season against Glasgow Warriors, performing well and playing 73 minutes of the match. He made a further two appearances in the 2017–18 season.

Ireland

O'Brien was selected for the Ireland U-20s squad for the

2016 Six Nations Under 20s Championship The 2016 Six Nations Under 20s Championship was a rugby union competition held in February and March 2016. Wales won the tournament, the Triple Crown and the Grand Slam. Final table Results Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 R ...

, where Ireland finished third. O'Brien then starred as Ireland finished in their best ever position of second at the

2016 World Rugby Under 20 Championship The 2016 World Rugby Under 20 Championship was the ninth annual international rugby union competition for Under 20 national teams. The event was organised in England by rugby's governing body, World Rugby. Twelve nations took part in the tournamen ...

, during which they also beat the Baby Blacks for the first time.

References

External links

Leinster ProfilePro14 Profile
* 1996 births Living people Clontarf FC players Dublin University Football Club players Irish rugby union players Leinster Rugby players Rugby union centres Rugby union players from Mullingar Rugby union wings {{Ireland-rugbyunion-bio-stub