They weren’t two line breaks he made. Peter O’Mahony simple ran over a Welsh player. Twice.
It will be gnawing at O’Mahony that he is not in Ireland’s starting back row.
The current triumvirate of Stander-O’Brien-Heaslip seems unbreakable or, at least, it did until Friday night in Cardiff. One Lomu-esque carry from CJ Stander aside, the Irish back row was kept at bay. Sure, they made carries but they did not get them far.
Ireland found themselves 15-6 down but proceeded to turn the tide with O’Mahony, Cian Healy, Kieran Marmion and Iain Henderson all making an impact off the bench. They tore into Wales and should have hit the front only to give away a needless penalty when a mauling try looked inevitable [Robbie Henshaw at fault there].
During that period of Irish dominance, Peter O’Mahony was immense. He made some big carries and cleared some hefty bodies away from the breakdown.
https://twitter.com/yasinbrowne/status/840317473782145025
How can he still not start Peter O'Mahony for fucks sake
— Eddie Roche (@eddie_roche) March 10, 2017
Peter O'Mahony drives it on! #WALvIRE
— stagparty.ie (@stagpartyie) March 10, 2017
It was not to be, however, and Ireland’s championship hopes are in smithereens.
O’Mahony was one of the (un)lucky five Irish players selected to face the media in the Principality Stadium mixed zone. Keith Earls had been the only player to stop, of his own will, and give his take on another bitter defeat. The rest needed some coaxing.
The Munster captain found himself in with two Irish reporters and several English reporters that had travelled over the Severn Bridge to run the rule over Joe Schmidt’s men.
During his five minute interview, O’Mahony was asked seven questions. Four of them were about England and if they were “a cut above”. The game had ended just before 10pm and here was O’Mahony, at 11:46pm, being asked about England’s Grand Slam chances.
He will not have enjoyed the experience but he handled each question with grace and consideration.
“There’s obviously motivation there [to best England] and we are playing at home, where we haven’t lost for a long time in the Six Nations. We all know what it means to play England and we don’t need any extra motivation – last game at home in the Six Nations. We can finish second; that’s another carrot for us.”
O’Mahony continued, “Yeah, the margins are small but it would be hard to argue against that statement [that England are a cut above]. They could obviously make it 18 Test wins in a row so it is hard to argue.”
A game to go, on St Patrick’s weekend in Dublin, and Ireland are fielding questions on stopping an English Grand Slam.
Yes, it has come to this.
It may have also come time to recall O’Mahony to the starting line-up.
