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The Road Ahead

For a lot of professional athletes, there comes a point when they begin to tire of the off-season. Even at that, Jimmy O’Brien probably needed less convincing than most.

Sure, the holidays have been good. There were trips to Mallorca and Dungarvan and enough time to allow a body that was still playing rugby deep into July to recover. There were several weddings too, with O’Brien given enough duties to ensure the off-season was not entirely without responsibility.

After a season disrupted by injury, O’Brien finished the campaign strongly. Andy Farrell had seen enough in his form towards the end of the season to put him in from the start against Australia, Japan and New Zealand in the Nations Championship.

Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Ben Brady

“It was long and tough,” O’Brien says of the last campaign. “Even though it was frustrating at the time, missing a good chunk of games in the middle of the season meant that my body felt pretty good when I joined up with Ireland.

“In that sense, the end of the season probably came at the wrong time for me. I wasn’t sure how involved I’d be but Andy backed me to do a job. I put a few games together and built some good momentum which I hope to carry into the months ahead.”

Back-to-back hamstring injuries around the Christmas period interrupted O’Brien’s 2025/26 season, while competition for places remained as fierce as ever following Rieko Ioane’s arrival. By the closing weeks, however, O’Brien had worked his way back into form and into the international picture.

With Ioane and long-time teammate James Lowe now leaving Belfield, the make-up of Leinster’s backline will change again. While sorry to see close friends and familiar faces move on, O’Brien is well aware that change is part of professional rugby. His focus now is on the new season and making the most of the opportunities it brings.

“First and foremost, my goal is to keep the body right through the season,” O’Brien says candidly. “We obviously have a few clearly stated aims from a Leinster perspective, and with it being Leo’s last season, we won’t be cutting any corners.

“From there, I want to make sure I’m right in the mix for Ireland over the coming months. Going to the Rugby World Cup in 2023 was a highlight of my career and I’d love to be part of the next one in Australia.

“That’s obviously a long, long way away in rugby terms but that’d be the big personal goal. The important thing is recognising that getting there starts with week one of pre-season. You have to put the building blocks in place now and take it from there.”

Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Grace Halton

Whatever the bigger ambitions may be, O’Brien knows they will be shaped by the more familiar journeys that come first.

As an ambassador for MSL Motor Group, whose support of Rugby Players Ireland continues to empower Irish rugby players, his new Mercedes-Benz will become a familiar part of that routine over the season ahead, carrying him between training, airports and the various demands of professional rugby.

It will also take him back home.

O’Brien says Eadestown in Co. Kildare consists of little more than a church and a crossroads. And yet it has produced more professional rugby players per capita than any other place in Ireland.

Diarmuid Kilgallen and Tadhg Beirne may be teammates at Munster Rugby these days, but they grew up just around the corner from O’Brien’s home. Former Leinster Rugby scrum-half Rowan Osborne was another childhood companion in the area.

With professional players seemingly around every turn and rugby consuming much of his working week, O’Brien’s world could easily have narrowed around the game. Yet one thing that becomes apparent in conversation is the emphasis he places on relationships formed outside it, and how they have endured.

Many of his friends remain dotted around Kildare, meaning his car gets plenty of use visiting them. He has also found ways of bringing the different strands of his life together.

“Yeah, when I first got into Leinster the lads from home used to slag me a bit about my rugby friends,” he says. “As a result, I never really thought to mix the groups but about six years ago I set up an NFL Fantasy League and shared it around. Some of the rugby lads got involved, and some of my other mates.

“We try to meet up on a Sunday, which has been pretty cool. Nowadays it’s actually more about the social side and catching up with each other than about the game itself.

“These days I’m left out of the loop more and more because the lads just hit it off. They’re all good mates now, which is great.”

It is a small example of something O’Brien seems to value: keeping a life and set of relationships beyond rugby. The time spent travelling between those different worlds also gives him space to switch off from the game.

Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Ben Brady

O’Brien has been similarly deliberate about using some of the other hours the game affords him. He already holds a degree in Financial Mathematics and is now working towards his Certified Financial Planner qualification through the LIA.

“Thanks to Rugby Players Ireland, I was pointed in the direction of the LIA. I felt it was important to keep my studies going but wasn’t sure how manageable it would be. Thankfully, they have facilitated me with one module every semester.

“That doesn’t make the exams any easier,” he adds. “My most recent one fell on the morning of our URC quarter-final, and while I was close to ploughing on with it, I realised that while the exam could be repeated, the game couldn’t.

“The guys at the LIA were great and understood where I was coming from. I’ll sit it again soon and keep the show on the road.”

Despite O’Brien’s academic determination, he does not pretend to know where life beyond rugby lies. For now, his interest in numbers has given him a path that engages him away from the pitch and should serve him well wherever it might eventually lead.

As Emma Burrows (RPI Player Development Manager) will no doubt have reminded him, preparing for life beyond rugby does not necessarily require you to know precisely what that life will look like. Sometimes it is enough to keep adding pieces while there is time to do so.

For all that thought about the future, O’Brien is very much concerned with what remains immediately ahead of him as a rugby player. His ambitions for the season make that clear.

The Leinster environment he returns to looks slightly different to the one he left behind in June. Some close friends have moved on, among them Will Connors and Ciarán Frawley, while familiar faces like Joey Carbery and Peter Dooley have returned.

Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Dan Clohessy

“We’ve definitely lost a good few characters from the building,” O’Brien says. “When big personalities like Lowey, Will and Luke McGrath move on from any environment, you’re going to feel their loss.

“But movement is all part of rugby. Change can be good because with it comes opportunity for those that are still here. For that reason I think there’s a real excitement and energy about the place. We have big goals and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in.”

O’Brien has already identified the destinations he would most like to reach in the months ahead, but they remain some distance away.

For now, it is enough to know where the most important road leads: back to work.