Peter O’Mahony still a fearsome competitor who refuses to take a backwards step

One evening back in March 2007, the PBC Cork squad had a training session in UCC’s Curraheen Sports Ground, aka The Farm, in the build-up to their Munster Schools Senior Cup final against CBC.

This included a live scrummaging session against the UCC Under-20 pack. The young Pres number eight, then in fifth year, picked up off the back of the first scrum and after being tackled was trampled on by some of the UCC players with no intervention from anyone.

Cue a second scrum, and after he charged off the base the young number eight was liberally shoed again. Far from cowed, but furious with his team-mates, he called them into a huddle and warned them they better not let it happen a third time without doing something about it.

Cue a third scrum, another charge and another shoeing for his troubles. But this time all his team-mates, backs included, piled in and all hell broke loose. The Pres boys were younger but there were more of them and they gave as good as they got for three or four minutes.

The Counter Ruck: the rugby newsletter from The Irish Times

---

What has David Nucifora ever done for Irish rugby?

---

The Counter Ruck: Does rugby need the 20-minute red card?

---

A week or so later, Pres beat Christians 13-3 in the final and several of their team, captained by Scott Deasy, believe that the winning of the cup was that night on The Farm.

The young number eight was, of course, Peter O’Mahony, who today becomes just the 10th Irish rugby player in history to play 100 times for his country.

It’s one of several stories which his former Pres coach Paul Barr likes to tell about O’Mahony, for it demonstrates many of the virtues that have always singled out the player and the personality; fearless, ultra-competitive and galvanising.

O’Mahony is far from the biggest forward around and he’s had his injury woes. Yet despite missing the bulk of two seasons after his knee injury in the final pool game of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, and calls for him to be dropped when mostly a bench player two seasons ago, at 34 O’Mahony is again as integral a part of the Irish team as ever.

The third Munster player in quick succession to reach the milestone following Conor Murray and Keith Earls, and the sixth overall, he’s also the first backrower, albeit Jamie Heaslip did play 98 Tests for Ireland and twice for the Lions.

If one includes his one Test for the Lions, strictly speaking therefore, the 13-8 win over South Africa was O’Mahony’s 100th Test, and again demonstrated why his performance cannot solely be measured in numbers even though his 11 tackles were only bettered by Caelan Doris and equalled the totals of Josh van der Flier and Johnny Sexton.

But after Ireland lost their first four lineouts, they won 12 of their next 14, moving to shortened lineouts in restricting the Boks to one defensive pod and, above all, using O’Mahony’s speed on the ground and agility in the air for Ronan Kelleher and Dan Sheehan to hit their target.

Barr, who is now overseeing rugby and teaching in Terenure College, first came across O’Mahony when he was 15-years-old and on the Pres Junior Cup team, when the school’s games master Caleb Sheehan, asked him to lend a hand. The team had shipped 70 points in three separate friendlies against Leinster schools.

“He was playing outhalf and he was quite accomplished,” recalled Barr to The Irish Times this week. “He could kick off both feet very well, and he could pass off both hands, but he was a terror.

“He was very competitive, but if the game went away from him he’d get very temperamental. At that age, it was about channelling his competitiveness, which was so feral and natural, into a full performance. So, Caleb moved him into the forwards.”

O’Mahony had been the 10, with Simon Zebo at 12, before moving to the wing.

“They just had this massively aggressive approach but no sense or organisation to it. But Peter developed pretty quickly in the backrow.”

That Pres team lost in the semi-finals of the Junior Cup but in the Bowen Shield in the ensuing September, lifting was to be allowed for the first time. Barr told them if they did the work that March/April/May they could well get a jump start on their rivals. O’Mahony ran the sessions himself and brought the Pres Bowen Shield team up to Cork Con during summer evenings for lineout sessions.

O’Mahony became the de facto captain of the senior team in his final year at school. A year younger, Niall Scannell had been captain of the Bowen Shield team, which meant he couldn’t train with the senior squad until December. His introduction to the senior squad was a morning lineout session in the gym before school.

“The first ball he threw to Peter was chest high,” recalls Barr. “Peter batted it down with a closed fist and he looked at Niall in the eye and said: ‘I don’t catch that kind of crap’. He was just setting the standards from day one for this up-and-coming hooker.

“Although he went about his business quietly and humbly, Peter was already a very galvanic, charismatic personality amongst the boys.

“When people ask me about him I say: ‘he made the journey throughout adolescence from being wild, passionate and uncontrolled, to focused, committed and great leadership, over a three- or four-year period.”

Barr was also assistant coach of the Irish schools team in 2006-07 which featured O’Mahony and Ian Madigan, when wins over Italy and France set up a finale against England at the Under-18 Six Nations Festival in Glasgow. O’Mahony scored one of Ireland’s two tries in a 23-12 defeat.

“He was the best player on the pitch. So competitive, focused, energised, intelligent in everything he did. He was a man apart, I felt, at that stage.”

Barr also recalls the smile on the face of Peter’s dad, former Cork Con president John O’Mahony, after that game. He knew from that day he had a special one in his son, although he has never been a particularly pushy father, just one who has given his son every lift and every support he could over the years. It’s probably cost him a fortune, but what a journey for him and the family as well.

Brian Hickey, at Con, and Anthony Foley, who worked with O’Mahony at every level from the academy and under-20s up at Munster, were other particularly strong influences.

This week, O’Mahony reminisced about those school days by text with Barr. He was called up to Dublin to be interviewed for a place in the Munster academy. Brian O’Hara, son of Pat, had been the seven on the Pres team, and also played for the Irish schools before injury undid his career.

O’Mahony came back to Pres and informed Barr: ‘They see me as a seven. Paul, I’m not even the best seven in Pres.’

And Barr agreed.

“We didn’t see 100 caps coming but we saw great potential,” said Barr.

“He’s been told he was too small, he was told he got injured too frequently. But I think Peter competes at such a high level that when he gets a knock, instead of continuing on with the play, and not being 100%, he ‘takes a knee’, allows his brain to recalibrate and then go again. And I think to this day, he still does that.”

Paul O’Connell, who has known O’Mahony since he was 18, talked this week of the flanker’s natural leadership and desire to learn and set examples, while noting the best years have come in recent times.

“He’s fit, he understands the game more than ever and that allows him to play really well and be aligned with what the coaches want and what’s best for the team.

“He communicates really well with the group. He sets a lovely tone. We’ve guys that communicate and speak in different ways. He has a certain way of setting the tone and there’s never any BS about it. It’s always straight and to the point and, from that point of view, he’s been great for us.

“He had a period there a while back when he was on the bench and he was excellent for us as well. He prepared the starting group really well, he prepared the subs really well, despite being a starter for so long. I think that period was good for him.

“Since he’s gotten back into the team, he hasn’t let go, so I’m delighted, as a Munster man, to see him getting 100 caps. It’s a brilliant achievement and it’s full credit to him.”

John and Caroline, along with their other sons Mark and Cian, and O’Mahony’s wife Jessica and kids Indie, Theo and Ralph, will all be among the capacity crowd in the Stade de France for what will be a special night.

But O’Mahony, who has cultivated a slightly taciturn and grumpy public persona which is at odds with the real person, will have hated the fuss this week, and seen it as a distraction from the night’s primary purpose.

He is still the same fearsome competitor that refused to take a step backwards on those nights out training at The Farm. The plaudits will mean nothing to him unless Ireland win.