Penalty count worries lionheart Peter O’Mahony

There’s an age-old rugby song which claims that “old soldiers never die, they only fade away”.

Munster’s many great heroes of the early years of this century may have hung up their boots but that doesn’t mean their hearts and souls aren’t with the team as strongly as ever, and that was the case at Thomond Park on Saturday.

Among them was Ronan O’Gara, fresh from regaling a full house at a Young Munster lunch across the city at the South Court Hotel, and they were made to feel extremely welcome by the current crop of stars.