James O’Connor has been many things to many teams over many years.
He started out as an Australian prodigy, a Wallaby at 18, who was seen as a “once-in-a-generation talent”.
Then there was the ‘bad boy’ who arrived in the English Premiership in 2013 with London Irish and then departed to play in Europe.
There was also the O’Connor who, after stints at Sale and Toulon, returned home to Australia to fight his way back into the national team after five years in the international wilderness.
But the O’Connor that Leicester Tigers have now is different again. The whizz-kid has grown up and the rebel is long forgiven.
What Tigers appeared to be getting when they signed O’Connor from Crusaders in June was a 35-year-old former Australia international – a reliable, seasoned veteran who had seemingly earned his final international cap three years earlier.
Within a month, he was brought into the Australia squad for the British and Irish Lions tour and by August, O’Connor was back in green and gold playing against South Africa and has featured in all four of their Rugby Championship Tests so far.
When O’Connor signed for Tigers, he said he felt it was a “full circle moment”.
“I never felt I played my best footy, due to injury, life choices and just where I was at as a man,” he said. “This move is to rectify this.”
O’Connor, the versatile veteran playmaker, is now the reborn international star with a few points to prove at Leicester.
