O'Mahony: Positive Covid test was a reality check for rugby

©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Peter O’Mahony will have no reservations about returning to action for the first time in six months this Saturday but the Munster captain admits a first case of Covid-19 within the province has delivered a reality check.

The Ireland flanker would not be alone in that regard as the four provinces finally resume their 2019-20 campaigns with a round of Guinness PRO14 matches at an empty Aviva Stadium. Munster meet Leinster first up on Saturday evening with Connacht facing Ulster the following afternoon.

There is no doubt professional rugby’s restart after an unprecedented hiatus is a cause for celebration and relief for players about to resume a much-delayed season.

Yet last week’s positive test for a Munster academy player, and now the Government’s re-imposition of restrictions on gatherings announced on Tuesday, has brought the coronavirus closer to home in a sport that had until then escaped unscathed thanks to the implementation of biosecure training environments.

It is understood professional sports teams and horse racing are exempt from the 15-person limit on outdoor training sessions but Munster’s confirmed case saw sessions cancelled as precautionary measures. The unnamed member of their wider training squad is now asymptomatic, while two of the six players asked to also self-isolate as potential close contacts have, the Irish Examiner understands, been established as not being close contacts.

Speaking before the Taoiseach’s statement on Tuesday, the positive test was addressed at both Connacht and Munster’s online media sessions. O’Mahony spoke about the mood in the Munster camp when news of the confirmed case broke.

"I think when you're in the rugby bubble, you're taken out of reality a little bit and that was a proper reality check for us, that unfortunately this disease is amongst everyone and nobody is immune to it,” O’Mahony said.

"So it's a reality check for us. The protocol we have in the HPC is second to none, I thought the doctor (Jamie Kearns) and the management were excellent, the way they handled it. Jamie was all over it very quickly, all the management had all the protocols that we had to go through and I think we were very diligent about it, but again the priority was that the player was healthy and was going to recover fine, that was the initial thought and then we just stuck to the process to get back.”

Asked if he now had any reservations about returning to play, O’Mahony was succinct. "No, not at all.”

The Munster skipper praised the strict protocols in place at the High Performance Centre in Limerick, where a third round of PCR testing took place for players and staff on Monday, and that will also be central to Saturday’s matchday procedures.

"It just shows how important our protocol is here. I've no doubt it's not going to be the last case in Irish rugby in general over the foreseeable future.

"And I think it just showed that you think all the processes are a little bit over the top, but I think we would have been in big trouble if it hadn't been for our protocol and our processes.

"You hear those words a lot about rugby, but with regard to trying to control the virus, they stood to us definitely and it just shows how important they were, everything from handwashing to the one-way systems to the social distancing in the gym. It's very different but it's something that we're going to have to get used to for a long period by the looks of things.”

Yet O’Mahony added: “Every player goes out into the public, on your day off you meet someone for a coffee...if it's in the community we've got to be very careful, and everybody's got to be very careful.

"Guys have got to understand that for us to get back, we have to be incredibly diligent with regard to what we're doing outside of it — as much as any person in the country or in the world at the moment, people have to understand how diligent they have to be to try and get rid of this.

"Particularly after last week we understand how important that is and will be going forward.”

At Connacht, back-rower Eoghan Masterson admitted the first case in Irish rugby was cause for concern.

“You’re always a bit worried, especially when people are asymptomatic,” Masterson said. “You take confidence in the fact you are doing absolutely everything the right way and you’re following all the protocols as we should do. But I suppose there is that fear that someone could be having it with completely no symptoms. Then all of a sudden the whole team is going to be closed down. Thankfully that hasn’t been the case so far.

“You would worry, it would be an absolute travesty. We have come through two or three rounds of testing so far, we have gone through eight weeks of a pre-season, no issues, and if something was to happen close to the games it would be a real shame.

But I suppose you take confidence in the fact that we have done everything the right way, we are taking all the necessary precautions.

“We got tested again (on Tuesday) and hopefully that comes back in two or three days’ time. There is nobody here showing any symptoms so hopefully that comes back all clear and we are ready to go.”