O’Mahony: Forwards lit fuse for power show

Peter O’Mahony felt a warm glow in the Ireland dressing room after the match.

Reflecting on Ireland’s stirring victory, he couldn’t help pointing fingers of praise to his forward colleagues. Man of the match Donnacha Ryan and Mike Ross came in for special mention for their organisational roles in set piece play, while both Cian Healy and Richardt Strauss got a seal of approval for their ability to find individual and collective weakness in the Argentinian game.

Overall, O’Mahony suggested, it came down to being able to take advantage of an endless amount of hard work over four weeks.

“We learned lessons from South Africa and the Fiji result gave us a great boost, it was a huge boost for the squad,” he said.

“I can’t give enough praise to fellas like Donnacha for the amount of home work he does in lineouts and stuff and Mike Ross for the detail in the scrummaging, Cian Healy and Straussy for the endless time they spent on the laptops looking at fellahs.”

Argentina came to Ireland expecting at least parity from the forward exchanges, but O’Mahony said playing second fiddle to the visitors was never an option.

“We talked all week about doing ourselves justice. We owed ourselves a performance. We wanted to play well and we sat in the dressing room afterwards and there was a good feeling that we did that.”

With Ireland’s squad to be strengthened by the return of key players Brian O’Driscoll, Paul O’Connell, Rory Best, Rob Kearney, Stephen Ferris and Sean O’Brien for the Six Nations, O’Mahony believes there is a lot to look forward to. However, he was quick to refer to the roles played by replacements throughout this series.

“There is a young squad here. Hopefully we’ll be taking this team to the World Cup and stuff. Hopefully we will have laid down our own markers.

“We have to take control of this team. It’s going to be our team for the next few years. We just have to play well and stick our hands up for selection.”