Peter the leader plays down praise

He has been best described as a youngster with an old head on his shoulders.

The Peter O’Mahony CV reveals he’s just 22 but with four Irish senior caps and a history of captaincy at different levels, his experience belies his age.

The youngster is destined for good things, as would be quite evident from the selection policies of Munster and national coaches Tony McGahan and Declan Kidney.

Put in the spotlight before the media at Thomond Park on Wednesday he showed signs of nervousness. Then again, he quickly explained, he’s always nervous before games, big or small. And this Sunday’s Heineken Cup quarter-final clash with Ulster doesn’t come much bigger for anyone in the Munster party, not least the new kid on the block.

O’Mahony isn’t a bolt from the blue. He played his schools rugby with PBC and club rugby with Cork Constitution, led the Irish U20s in the 2009 Six Nations and Junior World Cup in Japan.

In senior professional rugby he made his Magners League debut as a replacement against Ulster in January 2010 and captained Munster to the final of the inaugural British and Irish Cup the same season.

So with all that experience on a very young CV, one would expect one of the rising stars of Irish rugby to be cocky. He put the question of his rising reputation to bed quickly.

“Yeah, I’ve enjoyed it in the last few months. It’s great to get an opportunity to get some starts, get some continuity, to get some games in a row,” he said.

“But I think it won’t matter for much if we don’t perform on Sunday.”

Nothing that happened in the last couple of weeks, even the defeat to Leinster which obviously hurt, will deflect his attention from the task at hand, a knockout battle with Ulster. He is determined to secure the result that will shape how people think of Munster this season.

“That’s rugby for you, isn’t it? Leinster are a good side, we didn’t perform exactly the way we wanted to but you get on with it.

“Look, we’ve reviewed it, there are certain areas that we have to improve on this week, coming into next weekend.”

But the Leinster result, he hopes, will soon be a dim, distant memory. He is looking forward to a battle and an outcome that will prove Munster have come a distance from last season — with a little help from the youngsters in the squad.

“Myself and Simon [Zebo] have been playing together since we were five or six, it’s nice to have him in there with you. You have the balance of Simon and fellas like Ronan and Paul. I think there’s a good mix to the squad at the moment, there’s a great crew of young fellas coming through at the moment, which is always positive to see.”

Listening to him speak, it’s obvious youngsters like O’Mahony are getting good grounding from the top, and the flanker praised Doug Howlett amongst others. “I think it’s great to be involved with a couple of fellas who have been here for years. There’s no point listing them all off but the older fellas are great to give knowledge, they’ll be the first fellas to give you their opinion when you are looking for something.”

On a personal level, O’Mahony is intent on keeping his feet firmly on the ground. Has he taken stock of his rise from club to province to country?

“Not really. I think if you do that you’re on the back foot straight away.

“You’ve got to look forward, there’s no week really when you can relax. There’s always something else to do, there’s always something new to learn. You’ve got to keep looking forward.”