Andy Farrell: Team-first Peter O'Mahony still getting better

Peter O’Mahony will make his 83rd Ireland appearance when he lines up at Twickenham tomorrow

Fri, 11 Mar, 2022 - 06:10

Simon Lewis

Peter O’Mahony’s resilience and strength of character might have been reason enough for Andy Farrell to include the Munster captain in his starting back row to face England but the Ireland boss believes the 32-year-old flanker is still improving his game.

O’Mahony will make his 83rd Ireland appearance when he lines up at Twickenham tomorrow as head coach Farrell sticks with the back row that started against Italy last time, the Corkman retaining the number six jersey alongside Josh van der Flier on the openside and Caelan Doris at No.8 as Jack Conan settles for a place on the bench.

It may be O’Mahony’s second consecutive start but has been a replacement in five of the seven other Tests in the last 12 months and his bouncebackability has made an impact on the Ireland boss.

"I've been unbelievably impressed with how he's handled himself,” Farrell said yesterday. “Pete's started a lot of games for Ireland and has probably been top dog for a number of years in the past.

"He's been in the squad and in the last couple of years he's not been in the team, been on the bench or whatever and he has never changed one iota.

"He has an unbelievably strong character to make sure he's just a team-first type of bloke and within all that I actually think his performance levels at the weekend and how we see him on a daily basis at training has improved."

O’Mahony has often made a point of rising to the occasion having previously been overlooked in selection, not least against England in 2017 when Jamie Heaslip was injured during the warm-up and the Munster star moved from bench to starting line-up and put in a man of the match performance as Ireland stopped Eddie Jones’s men from winning that year’s Grand Slam.

Preferring not to walk down memory lane, Farrell said: “Not just the past but the here and now is pretty important. I think he’s in good form. I think he’s improving in different aspects of his game as well and his point of difference is still standing to him.

“He has been great around the group over the last year. He deserves his start.”

Farrell highlighted O’Mahony’s leadership, set-piece and breakdown contributions in making his case for selection and added: “The rest of his game has come on an absolute treat. His attack stuff has really stepped up.

"I think he played really well against Italy, I also thought that Jack played really well coming off the bench and had a big impact, so the balance is right for this group."

O’Mahony later admitted he had no choice but to improve under Farrell given the quality of back-row options available to the head coach.

“It has to all the time when you’re talking about international rugby and the quality of the group we have,” O’Mahony said. “You look at the back row competition that we have. If you’re stood still and you think that you’re going well, there are going to be players who will pass you out.

“You’ve got to keep moving and he has given us the platform – and (assistant coaches) Paul, Foggs, Simon, Catty. They’ve given us the platform to reach our capacity.

“There’s no (top) level really. It depends on you and how much you want to go after it, how much you want to get better. That goes for anyone, whether you’re new in or here for a long time, the only person stopping your capacity to get better is you.”