Jimmy O'Brien (born 27 November 1996) is an Irish professional

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player who plays as a fullback for

United Rugby Championship The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

club

Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ir ...

and the Ireland national team.

Early life

O'Brien was born in

Eadestown Eadestown (; ) is a townland and parish in County Kildare, Ireland. It is situated on the R410 Regional Road south of Naas, between Naas and Blessington, County Wicklow. Eadestown Parish The Parish of Eadestown is composed of the civil par ...

in County Kildare, Ireland. He played in his school rugby with

Newbridge College , latin_name = , logo = Newbridge College crest.gif , logo_size = 140px , seal_image = , image = Newbridge College.jpg , image_size = 270px , alt = Newbridge College and the R ...

. Although he played fly-half at school, he moved to inside centre with the Leinster academy. His strengths in attack include a good kicking game, footwork, and passing, while in defence despite his lack of size he has a physical approach.

International career

With the Irish sevens team he generally played at centre, but also filled in at fly-half. O'Brien played for Ireland at the

2018 Hong Kong Sevens The 2018 Hong Kong Sevens was the 43rd edition of the Hong Kong Sevens tournament, and the seventh tournament of the 2017–18 World Rugby Sevens Series. The performance from this tournament determined the first fourteen seedings of the 2018 Rug ...

qualifier, scoring four tries, but Ireland lost to Japan 7–12 in the semifinal and consequently failed to qualify as a core team for the 2018-19 World Series. O'Brien played for Ireland on the London and Paris legs of the 2017-18 World Rugby Sevens Series; in those tournaments, despite its non-core status, Ireland surprised by finishing third and seventh respectively, with O'Brien scoring four tries across the two tournaments. In February 2022 O'Brien was called up to the

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

squad for the

2022 Six Nations Championship The 2022 Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) was the 23rd Six Nations Championship, the annual rugby union competition contested by the national teams of England national rugby union team, England ...

. In June 2022, he was included in the Ireland squad for the 2022 tour of New Zealand. On 4 November 2022, he was called up as a late bench replacement to the named squad to face South Africa in the first test of the Autumn Series, following an injury to Robbie Henshaw whose starting place was taken by replacement Stuart McCloskey. Following an injury to McCloskey in the first half, O'Brien made his test debut, playing 53 minutes in an Ireland victory.

References

External links

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Leinster ProfileURC Profile
1996 births Living people Rugby union players from County Kildare Irish rugby union players Leinster Rugby players University College Dublin R.F.C. players Ireland international rugby sevens players Rugby union centres Rugby union wings Rugby union fullbacks Ireland international rugby union players {{Ireland-rugbyunion-bio-stub