“Very, very close.”
Peter O’Mahony was swarmed when he stepped into the bar at the Double Tree Hilton last night. It has been a couple of months since we [the press] last got to speak with him and there is a lot to discuss.
The Munster captain will go through an entire season without playing for them. World Cup and a frustrating knee injury are the dual reasons O’Mahony has been forced to helplessly endure one of Munster’s worst seasons in years. He says:
“I am the club captain and I have been supporting Munster a long time [so] it has been tough the last few weeks. We had a great win [against Edinburgh] last week it was a good performance but, from one point of view, it probably added about 10 years onto my life, that last six minutes.
“We have a big game weekend ahead of us now, big training session tomorrow.”
One suspects that O’Mahony will be taking part in as much of that session as possible. He will miss Saturday’s Champions Cup-qualification decider with Scarlets but is hopeful of playing rugby again this season, for Ireland.
O’Mahony was favourite to take over the Ireland captaincy from Paul O’Connell until injury, and Rory Best, intervened. In his absence, CJ Stander and Josh van der Flier – the big winners at Wednesday’s IRUPA awards – have plunged into the already overcrowded back-row pool.
Two highly popular winners at the 2016 @IRUPA awards. History made by @CJStander too https://t.co/GBY2ySEqQf
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) May 4, 2016
The 26-year-old says he is ‘very, very close’ to full training and reveals when a decision will be made on him touring South Africa this summer. He comments:
“I won’t say ‘never’ but I will have to make a decision over the next 10 days, see what the story is. I have been given every opportunity but I am just going to see how training goes over those next 10 days and make a call on the rest of the season then.
“I am a rugby player, touring is one of the best parts of rugby and I love to be able to tour. Any tour you get to go on is always great craic, whether it is a World Cup whether is captaining a squad to America, they have always been great memories.
“I have never been to South Africa, it is a place I’d love to go and, obviously, the fact we have never won there… it would be lovely to go and have a nice tour and be in with a chance to set history.
“Of course I’d love to go but I have to take other things into account not just my heart. My head wants to go but I’ll just have to see whether my body will allow me to go.”
With that, O’Mahony moved on to work the room before being enveloped by his rugby brethren.
He looks good in a suit but he looks best in red, and green.
