Naas' Jamie Osborne on his debut try against South Africa and dream Ireland start

Jamie Osborne is the latest Kildare man to burst onto the Irish international rugby scene with the former Naas CBS student, after promising Leinster showings, making his Irish debut against South Africa in Pretoria in July. Osborne got a try on his debut in Ireland's 27-20 loss against the reigning World Champions.

“It definitely was a bit like the lion’s den alright, but it was class. No better place to start if you are going to be thrown in like that. It was an unbelievable experience, especially the second test. It's a shame, everybody talks about the try, but we lost that game so I don’t look back on that one as fondly as others might think, but it was definitely special,” Osborne recalled.

“We were lucky that we played in Loftus with Leinster a couple of weeks before, so that gave us a feel for what it would be like, but it was on another level for the first test. It was a lot more intimidating than rugby crowds over here would be, that just made it a bit more special to beat them then I suppose.”

The 22 year-old started both tests at full-back, a position familiar to him largely at youth grades, but rarely at senior rugby levels.

He explained, “To be honest, going into camp I didn’t think I’d be going in as full back cover but I did play there a good bit growing up. I’ve only played a couple of games there for Leinster, but it’s something that I probably trained at more than I played because you’d always train in a couple of positions during the week just in case you are needed. So I have trained there, it wasn’t too big of a change. It probably is best to play in the same position for both (Leinster and Ireland) but we’ll have to wait until the season starts, I’m not sure yet what the plans are for me.

“By the time I was told I kind of had a feeling that I would be picked there because that was where I had been training for the couple of weeks before it. I had a few chats with the coaches and it was mainly about being confident and backing my ability rather than worrying about not having played there before. That gave me confidence.”

The young Naas man comes from a rugby mad family in Kildare with younger siblings also coming through the Leinster ranks and all heavily involved in sport.

“They were disappointed that they couldn’t go to South Africa because at that stage it was late notice and it was hard to get over. The whole family were watching at home and they were delighted, there might have been some tears from my mum and dad. It was very special though, they sent out messages and videos throughout the week which was nice,” Osborne said.

“Potentially (more Osborne’s playing for Ireland), but I don’t want to put any pressure on the lads. We all loved sport growing up. Myself and Andrew would have played Gaelic football and rugby when we were growing up, the other lads are the same. If they want to pursue a career in rugby that would be great and it would be class to play with them as well.”

The attention of course now turns to the new season action for the young Leinster player and he feels that the addition of new faces has freshened things up ahead of the side mounting another Champions Cup challenge.

Osborne explained, “It’s been the same goal for the last couple of seasons with Leinster because we’ve fallen at the same hurdle a few times now. Everybody is so excited at the start of every season. We’ve had a full pre-season with Jacques (Nienaber) and we have a new attacking coach in Tyler (Bleyendaal) and I think everybody is excited to see what we can do in the season ahead. I think everybody is ready to crack on into it.”

Osborne added on Kildare’s rising presence in Irish rugby, “It’s great when you see Tadhg (Beirne) and Jimmy (O'Brien), two internationals from a small parish like Eadestown, it’s class to see and there will be more of it. Leinster have done a good job of promoting the game across the province. We’ve done a lot of open training sessions and you see a lot of young kids, who maybe aren’t from the traditional rugby areas, but they love supporting Leinster and talking about going up to the games.”