Captain O’Mahony ready to lead from the front for Lions

Peter O'Mahony screamed midweek captain even before the Lions squad was announced but, a week out from the first Test against the All Blacks, Warren Gatland has anointed the Munster blindside flanker as the Lions skipper against the New Zealand Maori.

Now it is even conceivable that O’Mahony could be the captain when the Lions front up against the All Blacks in the first Test.

Not that such a consideration will even enter O’Mahony’s head. The honour having been bestowed upon him, all that matters now is winning against the Maoris. That’s the only currency that counts.

But were that to happen, were O'Mahony and Sean O'Brien to have another big night in tandem with Taulupe Faletau in an innately well-balanced backrow against the Maoris here in Rotorua tomorrow, then the odds are that Gatland will stick with the loose forward trio that ticked so many boxes against the Crusaders a week ago.

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That would mean tour captain Sam Warburton, even if on the bench again, would miss out on the captaincy.

Were Alun Wyn Jones, who captained the Lions to their third Test win over Australia four years ago, recalled then he would be favoured to lead the tourists as he did against the Crusaders a week ago. But, even then, Gatland could stick with O’Mahony.

When Gatland was coach of Ireland in 2000, his tenure reached a point of no return after the infamous World Cup defeat to Argentina in Lens was followed up by a 50-18 defeat to England at Twickenham.

The Irish management made sweeping changes, bringing in five debutants in John Hayes, Simon Easterby, Peter Stringer, Ronan O’Gara and Shane Horgan, and picking eight Munster players – Peter Clohessy, Keith Wood, Hayes, Mick Galwey, Anthony Foley, Stringer, O’Gara and Mike Mullins. Ireland beat Scotland 44-22 and a revolution was born.

Gatland hasn’t forgotten. It’s probably why he has referred to the Munster mongrel in O’Mahony. The two men looked very relaxed when facing the media scrum yesterday alongside each other.

When the moment came two hours beforehand over breakfast in the Lions’ Rotorua hotel, O’Mahony recalled: “He just gave me a nod at breakfast, and fired it at me, and obviously I was delighted.”

Anything else? “No, no that was it,” said O’Mahony. And the two men laughed.

On a lovely winter’s sun-kissed day outside, Gatland was asked if O’Mahony would captain the Lions in the first Test if Warburton was not in the starting XV.

School teams

“We’ll see how he goes on Saturday,” said Gatland, not that he would have given anything away anyway. But that means it could indeed be O’Mahony.

Some men are seemingly born to lead. During his career, O’Mahony has captained PBC Cork, and all his underage Munster and Ireland sides, be it the under-19s and under-20s, and then Munster, Ireland and now the British and Irish Lions.

“Sometimes guys get, not pigeon-holed, but you get picked as captain as a young fella in schools teams and naturally you might fall into a few teams. Look, I’ve been very lucky with the teams that I’ve been part of growing up. They’ve been successful, Guys around me have been successful and the amount of people I’ve learnt off – not just the captains who I’ve been involved with, but the other players I’ve been around as well,” said O’Mahony.

“The amount of learning I’ve taken from them is huge, you’d hope you’ve picked up a couple of things that they’ve helped you with and brought them through as well.”

Some figures have been especially influential.

“Obviously, O’Connell was hugely influential on my career; I’m playing with him probably since I started with Munster. He was involved in nearly all of the games I’ve played with Munster and Ireland and he’d be a huge influence. Drico was still there when I was playing with Ireland as well, I could name lots more.

“Growing up, the Munster backrowers even when I was playing – Wally [Paul Wallace] and Axel [Foley] had a huge influence on my career as well. It’s a way maybe of paying them back for the hard work they put into me.”

It's doubtful whether O'Mahony would be here had Jamie Heaslip not pulled out in the warm-up to the Ireland-England finale to the Six Nations. At a stroke O'Mahony was promoted to the starting line-up for the first time in the Six Nations. He had a stormer and the rest, as they say, is history.

Through the grim times of his year out after the ruptured ACL joint he suffered in the World Cup pool win over France, and the injury setbacks which followed, O’Connell remained a rock.

“We bumped into each other in a corridor at our training centre. I hadn’t played in the first two Six Nations games. He said: ‘Keep your head down, keep tipping away. There are big games coming up for you.’ We were still in Europe. He said: ‘He [Gatland] will watch them. Keep battling away and that’s all you can do’.

Hard times

“There were obviously hard times but I was a firm believer in just taking it day by day and keeping my head down. I had a couple of setbacks with the knee, obviously. But I never said I wanted to play for the Lions at the end of this. I never said I wanted to get back to play for Ireland.

“I just wanted to get back training for the lads and get stuck in. And that’s what I did. It’s been a bit of a mad season, we won some big games and we lost some too, but there was a huge amount of learning and experience there, but here we are – it’s been a big 12 months alright.”

Come the big day against the Maori All Blacks, and O’Mahony will not try to be something or somebody he isn’t.

“I don’t think I want to bring anything different. I just want to bring my game and try and play as well as I can. Any of the good captains I’ve been around have played well consistently and that’s what you’ve got to do. It’s not about shouting and roaring or saying anything different before the game, it’s about leading by example and leading from the front.”

No better man.