Gerry Thornley: Peter O’Mahony a safe pair of hands but captaincy honour is fully deserved

This must seem a slightly odd season in Peter O’Mahony’s career. Now 34 and coming to terms with the crushing disappointment of Ireland’s World Cup quarter-final exit, the flanker has not been offered a new central contract by the IRFU, nor seemingly a new deal by his native province and he stepped down as Munster captain after one game against the Stormers and a decade in the job last November.

Whereupon he has been asked to captain his country for the first time in a Six Nations campaign.

O’Mahony succeeds Johnny Sexton on the premise that Andy Farrell believes the experienced Munster flanker to be the best man for the job here and now, whatever about the medium to long-term. This, after all, could conceivably be his last season of professional rugby.

It’s doubtful that Munster would have ended their barren years with last May’s URC title without O’Mahony, and although their win in Toulon last Saturday was only his second game since the World Cup, and first since November, he evidently remains their spiritual leader.

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O’Mahony has captained every side he has played for, including the Lions in the first Test in 2017, when Farrell was defence coach. One always sensed that O’Mahony was very much Farrell’s type of player, and no one could quibble with the latter when he stated that the Munsterman is “a born leader” and “thoroughly deserving of this honour”.

It will also be quite a tonic for O’Mahony, who could not but say yes when offered the role, having captained the side on 10 separate occasions previously.

“Ever since I was a boy starting off in the game, I have always dreamed of captaining Ireland. I have been asked to lead Ireland on a number of occasions previously, and each of those 10 matches were special days. To be now asked to captain Ireland ahead of the Six Nations is without doubt one of the proudest moments of my life and I would like to thank Andy [Farrell] for this show of faith in me.”

The choice of O’Mahony is also in keeping with the selection of the 34-man squad, for it underlines that the Six Nations is very much a standalone tournament in its own right, both in Farrell’s eyes and that of the union, which budgets for a third-place finish every year.

Hence, whereas the squad announcements by England (seven uncapped players), France (six) and Wales (five) marked more of a change at the start of a new World Cup cycle, Farrell retained all but seven of his 33-man World Cup squad, and the exceptions were all due to retirement (Sexton and Keith Earls) or injury (Rob Herring, Dave Kilcoyne, Ross Byrne, Mack Hansen, Jimmy O’Brien).

In their place come Tom Stewart, Cian Healy (originally selected for the World Cup), Ciarán Frawley, Harry Byrne, Jordan Larmour, Jacob Stockdale and Calvin Nash, while Nick Timoney is named as an additional backrow ahead of Cian Prendergast.

The Connacht backrow was one of the last four players cut before the World Cup squad was finalised, along with Stewart, Frawley and Stockdale.

Prendergast’s younger brother, Sam, is one of three uncapped players named as training panellists along with Munster’s recent signing Oli Jager and his provincial teammate Thomas Ahern.

Perhaps the retirement of Sexton is enough of a sea change, with Jack Crowley set to start at outhalf in Marseille and O’Mahony deemed a safe pair of hands to assume the captaincy for the 2024 Six Nations, whatever about beyond. Above all else it is a deserved honour for O’Mahony, which few would begrudge.