Zebo has high praise for captain O’Mahony

IT could well be a case of a youngster giving credit to another of his time, but Simon Zebo was effusive in his praise of the current Munster captaincy holder this week.

Zebo is delighted to endorse his former PBC Cork and Cork Concaptain Peter O’Mahony as a potential long-term leader. He didn’t quite use the term “he’s got it”, but the flying winger recognises the next four to six weeks might propel O’Mahony up another notch.

Having scored a try in the well-earned RaboDirect Pro12 victory over Glasgow last weekend, Zebo is looking forward to securing more game time against Llanelli Scarlets.

He is delighted with the chances that have been presented to him so far, saying: “It shows us that the coaches are willing give fellas a little responsibility; and it’s great [again] to see Peter getting a chance to captain the side.

“I have played under him at Cork Con and I know exactly what he is like. He is a brilliant captain and a great motivator. He knows how to assess situations and what is needed; he knows when to get guys riled up but he also knows when a calm atmosphere is needed.

“When it comes to motivating I just stick to myself. I like to get in my own zone, see what I need and give it my all to be ready. I know some fellas like to feed off the atmosphere in the dressing room, but I don’t, to be honest.”

But in the company of top class players with Munster, Zebo doesn’t have much to aspire to in terms of motivation.

“Yeah, it’s a great atmosphere, and when you are playing all the time among the calibre of rugby players like the Mafis, Stringers and Howletts of this world it is pretty easy to get motivated and play as well as you can, because you know you will be letting them down if you don’t perform. ”

Zebo is a hard running wing with physicality to match his speed. He’s likely to endorse any suggestion from coaches and captain to allow him thrive in his natural habitat. But he does recognise that it doesn’t get any easier in the modern world of professional rugby.

“It’s generally pretty tight these days and space can be difficult to find. Wings need to get more involved in running off the ball and support work.”

He knows the Scarlets will be hard to handle based on their ever increasing emphasis on physicality up front.

“Yeah, he said, “they have brought a lot more physicality to their game but they go wide; edge to edge sort of stuff. We will be looking to throw the ball about as well, though, and hopefully we get good dry conditions and both of us can do that.”

MUNSTER (v Scarlets): J Murphy, D Howlett, T Gleeson, L Mafi, D Hurley. I Keatley, P Stringer; M Horan, M Sherry, J Hayes, D Foley, M O’Driscoll, P O’Mahony (capt), N Ronan, J Coughlan.

Replacements: D Fogarty, W du Preez, BJ Botha, B Holland, T O’Donnell, D Williams, S Deasy, S Zebo.