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For Jimmy OBrien, there was little solace to be taken in the fact that he stood up and was counted on the biggest day of a burgeoning career in Marseille.

My girlfriend tried telling me that as well, the Kildare native shrugged when it was put to him that he had a good game against La Rochelle last Saturday.

I told her I would have taken playing the worst game of my career if we had won and I would have taken a red card, doing everything bad, missing every tackle, dropping every ball if we had just won.

Its very, very difficult.

Its been a brilliant year for a player once tipped for big things by Isa Nacewa and despite his disappointment, he has his hand firmly in the air for selection for tomorrows United Rugby Championship final eight clash with Glasgow Warriors at the RDS.

Its been a tough week around Leinsters UCD base, but theyve been using their hurt as motivation for taking down the Scots and booking their space in the finalfour.

We still have the URC to play for, its a knockout game, a quarter-final at home, so it is still an exciting game to play in and everyones looking forward to it, OBrien said.

I hadnt really played knockout rugby for Leinster up until this season so, yeah, I really want to play in these big games and hopefully we still have three big knockout games to come, starting this weekend against Glasgow.

Id love to play in it, theyre still massive games and Id love to play in another final and try to win one.

Theyre a very good side; tough to play against.

The one game that stands out in my mind is that Rainbow Cup game last year when we were over there and they beat us.

They really got into us and got a good win out of it and that really p***ed us off, we were very frustrated.

Long-term, OBriens focus is already on next season and going one step further in the Champions Cup.

You kind of have to remember how you felt right after it in the changing room and use that for next season, he said.

Didnt the final get announced for the Aviva next year, thats even another motivation, to get to the final at home.

Were just going to have to try to use the pain.

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'My girlfriend tried telling me that as well' - Good final performance no consolation for Jimmy O'Brien - Independent.ie