Learning the trade from a legend: Dannah O’Brien and the Johnny Sexton connection

“You put that ball down on the tee, 40 metres from goal, and here goes a young one from Kilbride with the world looking at you. What’s in your head?”

Of all the questions run by Dannah O’Brien in her five years in and around the Ireland set-up, that one hit closest to home. It was asked by Brendan Hennessy at a sports awards ceremony, last December, for the Carlow Nationalist. O’Brien was back in her home county for the ceremony, and picking up the prize for women’s rugby contribution.

“Sometimes a lot,” O’Brien replied. “I suppose you have to try push those thoughts to the back of your head. It’s the same as kicking a ball at Tullow Rugby Club, so you have to look at it that way and hope that it goes over.”

The Kilbride native has been slotting kicks over for the past decade, and converted four from five in Ireland’s first Test win over South Africa, last weekend. O’Brien was a dual athlete, growing up, and spread her sporting time between GAA and rugby. She played Gaelic football for St Anne’s and made Carlow’s senior panel, while also lining out for Tullow Rugby Club and in Leinster underage sides.

O’Brien was part of a craic Leinster Under-18 squad that stormed to interprovincial title success, back in 2019. That team contained O’Brien, Aoife Wafer, Erin King, Aoife Dalton, Alanna Fitzpatrick, Leah Tarpey, Vicky Elmes Kinlan, Katie Whelan, Ruth Campbell and Abby Moyles. They won all three of their matches, scoring 132 points and conceding only seven.

During a chat with Wafer, last year, she observed, “A lot of those girls that were on that team are the ones with Ireland, at the minute, and driving them on to be successful. You have the likes of Dannah, Aoife, Erin, Ruth, myself. All those people. We were all growing up, playing rugby together, or against each other.

“We definitely knew we were on to something good as we were hammering all the other provinces. It was like, ‘We’ve a pretty good team, here’. It wasn’t until everyone started getting call-ups for Ireland that it confirmed, jeez, we really had something special.”

Three years after that early success with Leinster, O’Brien made her Ireland debut on a summer tour to Japan. She was only 19. So, too, was Dalton, her teammate at Leinster. Together, at fly-half and centre, the pair have amassed 78 Test caps in the past four years. It is a testament to their talent, commitment and consistency.

O’Brien has been in the 10 jersey for memorable moments, against the likes of New Zealand, USA, a record-breaking Aviva Stadium bow against Scotland and throughout Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025. One of the only concerns for Scott Bemand’s side is that over-reliance on O’Brien. Versatile Stacey Flood is the fall-back option, at 10, while Niamh Gallagher has potential to slot in. If the games are close, though, O’Brien is invariably there, from first to last whistle. In the coming months, Bemand may bring in the likes of Abby Moyles, Meabh Deely or Caitriona Finn for closer looks.

One interesting wrinkle with O’Brien, and her development, had rugby supporters enthused when it was announced, in 2025. It was confirmed, 18 months ago, that Johnny Sexton was taking up a full-time coaching role with the IRFU. The union’s press release stated, ‘As part of his expanded coaching role, Sexton will work with the various men’s and women’s national age-grade teams, up to senior level.’ Asked about such a legend being on hand for advice and support, around that time, O’Brien commented, “It’s really exciting to be able to pick Johnny’s brain, on his kicking game especially.”

While O’Brien and her Ireland teammates are in South Africa for this tour, as part of the WXV Global Series, Sexton is in Dublin, helping the men’s side prepare for November’s Nations Championship matches. On a visit to Ireland’s High Performance Centre, on Tuesday, I asked Sexton how much work he had got to do with the women’s side, and O’Brien.

“I have a session with them now, straight after this [interview], at half past four,” the former Ireland captain replied. “I’ve got a bigger role within the IRFU but the way it works is, I’m available for the pathway, for any underage teams. What was made clear from the start was that it would be driven by those specific teams. So, they pick up the phone, they reach out to me, and I go and do my thing.

“I haven’t done anything so far with the ladies, as was reported by a couple of media outlets about six months ago. But, again, it has to be driven by them, same as with the provinces. I’m very open, and happy, to go in and work with Leinster, Munster, Connacht, Ulster. But it has to be them. I’m not just going to rock up and do a session with random teams.”

Sexton says O’Brien has come in to watch a few of the men’s training sessions, in recent years, and spoken to him there. He recalls first meeting her ‘back in the day’ when she went along to a session from goal-kicking guru, Dave Alred. “Dannah is a great talent,” said Sexton, “and I look forward to working with her in the future.”

It seems somewhat odd that Bemand’s team had not utilised such a fantastic resource as Sexton until this week. At least that first session is now in the books. The women’s team do have former Ulster and Exeter fly-half Gareth Steenson with them, and in South Africa, as backs and kicking coach. O’Brien credits Steenson with taking her kicking and distribution games up a notch.

O’Brien was across all aspects of her game at Athlone Stadium, last weekend. Ireland, and their young yet vastly experienced 10, also stood up to the physical challenge set down by South Africa. “That physicality was something we were really looking at, in the lead-up to the game,” O’Brien said.

“We know they are a strong, physical side, so it was something that we wanted to go after. The forward pack did a really good job at the set piece. There were times they did get into the game but I think we did a good job, in general. We got tries from our forwards and our backs, so were quite happy. There are still areas to go after, in that physical battle, but we were quite happy.”

Ahead of the Second Test, O’Brien is eyeing improvements, and a first ever series win in South Africa for a senior Irish side. “We want to keep the ball high in play, just play our game and not let it get to a set-piece game. There was a couple of handling errors in the first half, last week. We want to get sharper in that area. Then, when we have our chances, to take them again, like we did last week.”

This has been a year of huge highs [record attendances, great wins] and lows [Women’s Six Nations away defeats and a home loss to USA]. Closing out 2026 with a series victory in South Africa, though, would tee up O’Brien and this Ireland side for a full-frontal assault on next year’s Six Nations.

“You can’t look for a series win without getting the first game right,” O’Brien sagely noted. “This week was just all about improving, just getting 1% better. Hopefully we can get our game out there, play with tempo and play our attacking game. We are really looking forward to it.”

Back to that awards ceremony, last December, and it was Hennessy, again, that presented the bow for this tale. “I’ll tell you one thing,” he proclaimed, “any team that has anyone from Kilbride on it will be hard to beat!”

Where Dannah O’Brien is concerned, those words definitely ring true.