O’Mahony demands Reds raise game

Munster captain Peter O’Mahony has urged his squad to play every game this season as if it was their last as the province aims to return to the winner’s enclosure in both the Guinness Pro12 and Europe.

While their Heineken Cup bid ended in disappointment with a frustratingly below-par semi-final defeat to eventual champions Toulon in Marseille, Munster’s 2013-14 league campaign began to fall apart at the same time in April and May when, missing an injured O’Mahony, Rob Penney’s side paid the price for sloppy Thomond Park defeats to Glasgow and Ulster, costing them a home semi-final.

Instead they had to go to Glasgow and came out on the wrong side of a 16-15 defeat at Scotstoun, marking the end of Penney’s two-year tenure in Munster. Now with Anthony Foley at the helm, there is a determination to right the wrongs of last season’s unravelling and with the new Pro12 campaign just eight days away, O’Mahony challenged the whole squad to step up.