Former champions schools sprinter-hurdler, Leinster's Tommy O'Brien, was given his European Champions Cup debut last weekend.Yet despite the idea the Dubliner turns 27 next month and despite having been at the club since 2019 and only making 41 appearances, nobody who knew the details were in the least surprised.His time had simply been blighted by injury. Once right, fit and ready to go, Leo Cullen's side has a throwback winger reminiscent of Denis Hickie, perhaps the fastest player to have ever played for Ireland. Hickie was a rugby sensation during his decade with Ireland (62 caps, 1997-07) and Leinster (129 apps, 1997-07) and held the Irish try-scoring record until Brian O'Driscoll passed out his 29 mark in 2008.A lightning sprinter working out of St Brigids Metro AC, he was All Ireland U15 100m champion as well as a noted 110m hurdler.How good was Hickie at rugby? Take this look at the all-time Ireland top try scorers list (and then their strike-rate), Brian O'Driscoll 46 tries (0.35 strike-rate), Keith Earls 36 (0.36), Tommy Bowe 30 (0.43), Hickie 29 (0.47).The connection to Leinster Schools 100m hurdle champion O'Brien, so impressive in the 52-0 demolition of Glasgow at the Aviva last week, is clear and obvious.And for those who like the idea of the current winger as an echo of the former, take note that Hickie maintained his athletics training had shaped his muscles so that he got faster and more powerful in his late-twenties and early-thirties."Some of the out and out sprinters here in the club are crazy fast at the moment," says O'Brien of a club where currently, along with Rob Russell, he posts what are known as 'Ten-Plus' times.The 'Ten-Plus' times are followed by the 'Nine-Plus' guys, players such as Hugo Keenan, Jimmy O'Brien and Jamison Gibson-Park - these are ones everyone is trying to avoid standing beside during certain parts of training.Continues O'Brien: "Rugby was my first love and I played centre all through school. Whenever rugby season finished in school, I'd have a couple of months in the summer to do athletics and I loved doing it."I got into hurdles because I didn’t think I was fast enough for pure sprinting so I did the 110m and 400m hurdles so a bit of speed endurance there as well."It always benefitted me, I can see why there would be a great correlation and I developed a little bit later on, got faster as I got older. I thought I was quite fit but didn’t quite have that top end pace but it developed."Besides, there was a lift back and forth to his first athletics club!"My dad would have coached at my first club, Blackrock AC, which was a very small club and then later I moved over to Dundrum South Dublin AC for my last few years of school."We had some great athletes in both clubs although when I got older there weren’t too many in my age group."I’m 26 now so ideally I should be in my prime for the next couple of years (Hickie's very theory)."I know my body better than I did when I was younger. The amount of rugby IQ that you pick up from being around the people here at Leinster."When I get out on that pitch I feel that I know where I should be. It is just a case of getting the reps, being on the pitch and in the right spot."There was another youngster quite often being given a lift to and from training in the car at that time with Tommy and his dad."Sarah Healy was a couple of years younger and in the same age group as my sister. She was always incredible and has gone on to do fantastic things. READ MORE: Leinster confirm signing New Zealand 'royalty', centre Rieko Ioane - his father, mother and brother are all internationals READ MORE: Leinster have done it again - signed another world rugby superstar "Our club was fighting to get medals and I don’t think she lost an All Ireland Cross Country race from the age of 12 up. "We always knew she was special and she had an unbelievable work ethic. It’s not surprising and great to see her break through at senior level."There were only a few competitions when graduating from junior to senior where she didn’t put it together. She had been running great times earlier in the year and now she has that European gold (in March at the Euro Indoors) which is incredible."Meanwhile O'Brien continues to be monitored by Ireland as, earmarked for RWC 2027, he is a racing certainty, on the back of being called into the Six Nations squad for a week last March, to make his debut for Ireland on the summer tour to Portugal and Georgia. "Ireland camp was very interesting in terms of the speed and the amount of detail and there were a lot of familiar faces that I would know from here at Leinster."It wasn't a daunting step up at all but it was definitely great to get an insight, especially as it was the France week, a massive week in there. It was great to see the intensity and the detail they were going through." O'Brien will be reprising his role on the Leinster wing this weekend against Ulster at The Aviva on Saturday (7.35pm)."I feel like they have turned a corner in the last few weeks when they had a great comeback win against the Stormers."They went very well against Bordeaux, scored some great tries and they have a good few guys who have just come back from injury, especially in the backline."So their backs are humming again. They look like they are enjoying their rugby again and it will be a big test." Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email.