O’Mahony has high praise for Laulala

Munster captain Peter O’Mahony has praised Casey Laulala’s emergence as a team leader ahead of the province’s RaboDirect Pro12 clash with Leinster tomorrow.

The retirements at the end of last season of Ronan O’Gara and Doug Howlett, the man O’Mahony succeeded as club captain this summer, have removed 350 provincial games and 183 Test caps of experience from the Munster backline. But O’Mahony believes he is not under any pressure to provide a greater vocal presence in the dressing room or on the pitch to fill the void as his side prepares for its biggest challenge to date of the new campaign.

“In Munster, we’re lucky, there always seems to be leaders coming out,” O’Mahony said. “There’s a good couple of young fellas there who are well able to voice their opinions during games and you still have hugely experienced guys there like Paulie [O’Connell] and Donnacha Ryan, Donncha O’Callaghan and these guys, they’re well able to talk as well.