Munster defence coach Denis Leamy maintained that the contractual position regarding Peter O’Mahony was “an ongoing process” and said he was not in a position to speculate that their captain of the last decade will be a Munster player next season.
This follows a report in The Irish Times that O’Mahony has not been offered a new contract by Munster when his IRFU central contract expires at the end of this season.
“I think Wig [Graham Rowntree] has probably spoken about it over the last while. It’s an ongoing process and it’s probably unfair for me to comment any further than that. That’s still ongoing so we’ll just have to wait and see how that pans out.”
O’Mahony has stepped down as Munster captain after leading them in his only previous appearance this season, when forced off during the interval of their 10-3 win over the Stormers, on November 18th. Although understandably rusty on his return in the Stade Felix Mayol last Saturday, his galvanising presence was palpable.
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“Pete is a great standard-driver,” admitted Leamy, himself a former Munster backrower and captain, who played alongside O’Mahony on the latter’s Heineken Cup debut on November 2011, when Munster beat Northampton 23-21 courtesy of that Ronan O’Gara drop goal after 40-plus phases. O’Mahony played the full 80 while Leamy, a replacement, gave the final pass off the base to O’Gara.
“Obviously he has great experience and he has been around a long time at this stage. That game was played in 2011 and he has had a lot of big games for Munster — and Ireland and the Lions — in between. He just brings a great calmness, a great standard-setter and just his ability to play rugby as well is fantastic.
“It was great to have him back for last Saturday, he brought everyone with him, great leadership, he’s someone that I think makes others feel better about themselves and certainly in the south of France, you need everyone feeling good about themselves. Pete was a great addition last Saturday.”
Meanwhile, although Jack O’Donoghue will be sidelined for three or four months due to the nasty looking knee injury he sustained in Munster’s New Year’s Day defeat against Connacht, there is relative relief within the province that the backrower does not require surgery and thus a longer rehabilitation.
[ Byron Ralston given three-game suspension for O’Donoghue incidentOpens in new window ]
Following a consultation last week, O’Donoghue will not require surgery on his knee injury and will instead be managed conservatively by the medical department, and while this was “bad news” it still represented “a silver lining” according to defence coach Denis Leamy.
“I wasn’t speaking to him today but we expected the worst really after the incident. He was unfortunate in the injury he sustained but three or four months isn’t the end of the world. You could be looking six to nine from that point of view.
“He’s a guy we’ll miss, a great squad player. The Six Nations is coming up and he would have been vital to us over that period with his leadership and his experience. Unfortunately, that’s not to be but fingers crossed he’ll be back before the end of the season.”
Overall, it was one of Munster’s less alarming weekly medical bulletins in this prolonged block of games leading into the Six Nations. Although, Oli Jager is continuing to follow the return to play protocols following his head injury in Galway and his availability for the Northampton game will be determined later this week.
But the indications are that the recently acquired ex-Crusaders tighthead will be available to face Premiership and Pool 3 leaders Northampton at Thomond Park next Saturday (kick-off 5.15pm), for which almost 23,000 tickets have been sold.
“It’s ongoing. Oli trained today and he seemed to come through pretty well,” said Leamy. “We’ll see how that goes in the next 24 hours but fingers crossed, he’s looking good. We’re hopeful.”
Flanker Jack Daly (ankle) also returned to training this week while Niall Scannell, Peter O’Mahony and Joey Carbery all came through their first games back after injury in the 29-18 win over Toulon unscathed.
[ Munster confirm Joey Carbery will leave at end of the seasonOpens in new window ]
“We just had to look at their training load the last couple of days but all are on track to be involved at the weekend again, so that’s really good for us.”
Perhaps most of all, Munster returned from that badly needed first away win of the season with no fresh injury concerns, which Leamy admitted was a relief.
“Yeah, it really is. It’s a funny old game, isn’t it? In Connacht we lose two players in the first half to bad injuries. Sometimes that happens but it’s brilliant to get on a plane and guys were in good spirits. We’re after winning and you look at the medical report and it’s almost green. There’s a couple of ambers and that’s never the worst thing. Yeah, it was good to see that.”
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