JAMIE OSBORNE has said he is ready for his first home start for Ireland – which might lessen his workload.
Osborne won his first two Test caps against South Africa in the summer when he lined out at full-back despite not having played there in the previous two years.
This month, he was covering both that position and inside centre on the bench against New Zealand and Argentina, coming on in midfield in both.
He is likely to be in the starting XV against Fiji which will be named today in another major milestone in his career.
Osborne said: “To get to play in some of the big games at the end of last season with Leinster was definitely class and then obviously South Africa went well for myself.
“So I’m pretty happy with how things are going this year so hopefully I can keep kicking on
“I feel ready if called upon. If I am lucky enough to be selected I feel ready.
“It’d be amazing. My family love going to all the games, they’ll be excited.
“I think the goal for everyone is probably to start but I’ve been lucky to be involved as well the last couple of weeks.
“I’ve covered different positions as well which is good experience I suppose. Hopefully I can get the start in one of the last two games anyway.”
He admitted prepping for the bench meant an extra attention to detail but says that putting in additional work is nothing out of the ordinary for anyone in the squad.
He said: “It can be difficult at times knowing all the roles off launch moves, but I’ve been doing it in camp for a while now and I’m kind of used to it.
“When you’re No 23 on the bench you’ve to know everything basically, you’ve to cover everything.
“It’s making sure during the week that, if you’re a full-back you’re getting reps with high balls, your kicking game.
“Centre is probably a bit more confrontational, bit more physical. You’re carrying and distributing a bit more.
“It’s just getting the balance right in training, maybe some extras pre and post training, making sure you have everything ticked off and you’re ready to go.
“Everyone would be staying back post training, we’d all be working on the individual stuff and that’s the expectation, really, because you can’t do everything in a team session.
“We all spend a lot of time in our mini units, the back three do their skills, centres their own after training, so that’s how we get it all in.”
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
Andy Farrell had described his contribution as ‘immense’ after coming off the bench against Argentina.
But Osborne – who grew up a fan of Brian O’Driscoll, Rob Kearney and Dan Carter – believes there is room for both individual and team improvement on the two matches to date.
He said: “I think obviously as a team we probably wanted to perform than we showed but Argentina was definitely a step up from New Zealand in terms of how we attacked the game at the start.
“We were probably a bit inaccurate and ill-disciplined in the second half, but definitely an improvement and we’re hoping to improve again this week.
“From a personal point of view, I thought I had a decent enough impact on the game when I came on but obviously there’s definitely some other things I could have done better as well.
“Coming on at the same time as Sam Prendergast, you both probably feel you have to come on and make an impact, bring energy to the team. I think that’s the expectation of the bench.
“There were probably a few moments that we got our hands on the ball and were able to find a bit of space but we didn’t score points in the last 20 either so we need to work on finishing those moments off.”
And he knows Fiji will ask questions of their defence.
He said: “I think they’re a very good side, they’ve a couple of game-breakers.
“They can be hard to prepare for because you don’t want to give them any loose ball, or you don’t want to be loose at all.”
