“I might not look happy but I am.”
Peter O’Mahony tore into his Munster teammates at half-time and, with slightly less ferocity, after the final whistle. Munster had defeated Racing 22-10 to secure a home semi-final but the performance was not what the captain wanted.
In no uncertain terms, he let the team know more was needed if Munster wanted to go on and do really big things in Europe and in the Guinness PRO12.
By the time he reached the post-match press conference, he had calmed down somewhat but he was still critical of Munster’s breakdown work, letting scoring chances slip and the poor job the pack did of protecting Conor Murray. He blamed himself, too, for bad decisions on big penalties in the first half.
Munster are back in the knock-out stages of the Champions Cup but it is nigh on nine years since the last tasted glory in a big European final. O’Mahony knows Munster and he knows this is as good a chance as they are likely to get. No point hanging around.
Munster has been in his blood from an early age. He played underage for Cork Constitution and, whenever the team got to Musgrave Park, he would head along to check out his heroes – Keith Wood and Anthony Foley were the big two but he adored the feistiness of Alan Quinlan, Mick Galwey and Peter Clohessy.
Last night, O’Mahony shared a brilliant picture from Munster’s Heineken Cup victory over Colomiers in December 1999. He had just turned 10 and was on ball-boy duty. O’Mahony wrote:
‘Nice shot from a good few years ago in Musgrave Park… drying the ball for woody in the last Champions Cup game held there in howling rain! On duty for Cork Con as a ballboy! Happy days!’
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPqLtWYj9JY/
The province’s last game in the tournament in Cork was against Viadana a few years later but the sentiment is spot on. Happy days.
27 now and captain of a team that is playing in the Munster spirit, O’Mahony is keenly aware of the massive opportunity his team has hewn for themselves.
When Jerry Flannery joined the Munster coaching set-up in 2014, he spoke of the pressure the likes of O’Mahony, Simon Zebo and Conor Murray had to live up to. The pressure of playing for a legendary team. All Flannery heard when he was breaking through at Munster, was about the famous team that beat the touring All Blacks. Flannery commented:
“In 2006, I was lucky enough to get in the team and we won. In a way I was like, ‘Thank God we don’t have to talk about the fucking All Blacks any more’, you know?
“I look at the current crop of players and I think that they are probably sick of hearing about 2006 and 2008. They want it to be about them but I’m lucky enough that I’m part of a coaching ticket where we can hopefully give the players that chance and that opportunity to go and make that happen.”
In Munster right now, there are young fans and players out there looking to O’Mahony and his teammates to write the next chapter. A massive few months are in store.
