Rory Best on Ireland’s two loudest players in pre-match changing room

It says a lot about the high regard Rory Best is held in that every other Six Nations captain spoke in glowing terms about him, on and off the pitch.

The Ulster star has revelled in the captaincy role since taking over from Paul O’Connell after the World Cup. He had to deal with two years of English dominance in the Six Nations but bounced back to lead his side to a Grand Slam in 2018, as well as a Test Series win in Australia and beating the All Blacks in two of three recent encounters.

Leinster hooker Sean Cronin has scored an incredible 12 tries for Leinster and Ireland this season (just eight shy of an all-time record shared by Tommy Bowe and Jacob Stockdale) but there is very little debate about Best getting the No.2 jersey this weekend.

Ahead of Ireland’s Guinness Six Nations opener with England, on Saturday, Best spoke with Alex Payne for Baz & Andrew’s House of Rugby [from 30:00 below] and offered up some interesting insights on his teammates and the chasing pack.

Best was in great form when he spoke to Payne – host of House of Rugby UK – at the tail-end of the Six Nations launch in London, last week.

He was asked a number of quick-fire questions and his answers were open, funny and revealing.

ALEX: “Tournament winners will be?”

RORY: “Em…. Pass on that one.”

ALEX: “No! Tournament winners will be?”

RORY: “Ireland.”

ALEX: “Complete the sentence, ‘I we win the tournament, I will…”

RORY: “Get very drunk!”

ALEX: “Who’s the loudest in the Irish changing room?”

RORY: “Sean O’Brien, very closely followed by Peter O’Mahony.”

ALEX: “And is it good noise, or just noise?”

RORY: “Seanie is just white noise. Pete just kicks things and bangs things.”

We would never have suspected Munster captain Peter O’Mahony would be the loudest one in the pre-match dressing room.

Not at all…

Best revealed the best opponent to share a post-match beer with was Leicester and England scrumhalf Ben Youngs, with whom he played with on the 2013 Lions Tour, and opened up on his best and worst Six Nations moment.

Best was lifting the trophy after the Grand Slam victory at Twickenham, on St Patrick’s Day, last year while the worst was losing a Triple Crown decider against Scotland, at Croke Park, in 2010.

You can watch the full Rory Best interview here:

The FootballJOE quiz: Were you paying attention? – episode 10