Peter O’Mahony put in one hell of a shift at the ami Stadium in Christchurch.
The Munster captain could well have been leading his country against the United States in New Jersey this evening were it not for two huge games at the business end of some big competitions.
O’Mahony went from Ireland replacement to starting blindside just five minutes before kick-off in their Six Nations finalé against England. He played a cracker that day and shot himself into the Lions picture.
Two weeks later and he creamed into Toulouse at Thomond Park to help his team to the Champions Cup semi-finals. Four days later and he was in the British & Irish Lions squad to tour New Zealand.
Austin Healey mentioned O’Mahony as an ideal midweek captain but there’s no chance in hell he was going to settle for that. The 27-year-old came off the bench in Wednesday’s painful loss to Auckland Blues but got his chance from the get-go against Super Rugby frontrunners, the Crusaders.
Lions head coach Warren Gatland requested O’Mahony to bring the ‘Munster mongrel’ to the fight. O’Mahony delivered…
Take a bow Peter O'Mahony.
82 minute shift
7 carries
5 successful tackles
1 turnover
1 lineout steal
👏🏻#CRUvBIL pic.twitter.com/3FEKiLtuNf— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 10, 2017
O’Mahony stood up to be counted time and again as Crusaders ran into a red-brick wall on their home turf.
Stephen Ferris told The Hard Yards rugby podcast, before the game, that the Lions would have to tackle man AND ball. To get in Kiwi faces and disrupt like hell. O’Mahony was the standard bearer:
He even found time to pitch himself in against three Crusaders players after trying to extricate England lock George Kruis from a SamWhitelock/Luke Romano pile-on:
Peter O'Mahony standing up for his @lionsofficial brothers #CRUvBIL pic.twitter.com/i2TofviYqz
— Pat McCarry (@patmccarry) June 10, 2017
Following the 12-3 Lions triumph, former Wales and Lions back-row Scott Quinnell made a quite compelling case for O’Mahony to start in the upcoming Test Series. He told Sky Sports:
“Peter O’Mahony, for me, is one of the guys that could really come into this Test side.
“We saw in a couple of lineouts Sam Whitelock – one of the best lineout forwards in the world – Pete put him under pressure in that lineout.
“They’ve got four or five guys pushing for those [loose forward] spots and they are expecting [Lions captain] Sam Warburton to be back and available for Tuesday so it is all to play for.”
Jamie Heaslip’s back injury, before that England game, was a devastating blow for him and his chances of a third Lions tour.
As for the Munster mongrel, he is up and firing on his first.
