Van Graan pays emotional tribute to “warrior” Peter O’Mahony

Munster's Peter O'Mahony claims possession in Saturday's Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final against Toulouse.

Johann van Graan has paid an emotional tribute to his “warrior” captain Peter O’Mahony as he considers how to lift his players for Munster’s United Rugby Championship title bid.

O’Mahony had led by example as Munster took Heineken Champions Cup holders Toulouse to the wire in Dublin last Saturday holding the five-time winners to a 24-24 draw after extra time in a quarter-final classic at Aviva Stadium before losing out in agonising fashion in a penalty-kick competition.

The captain had given his all in his 64 minutes on the pitch, menacing the Toulouse ball carriers and leading the charge to keep a heavyweight and physical team at bay with four turnovers in a huge defensive effort that was rewarded with the sponsors’ Star of the Match award and the gratitude of his head coach.

O’Mahony, van Graan said, had “played, literally when his body couldn't anymore,” before succumbing to the shoulder problem that had been hampering him throughout.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to coach a few warriors in my life and I’d say Pete is right up there in terms of being a warrior,” the Munster boss said.

“What he means to the team, he’s a man of action and he continued after the Exeter game into this game and he was phenomenal.

“Sometimes from a warrior perspective, your mind is still whirring but your body gives way and his body gave way and I think from a respect point of view, he’s one of those players I’ll look back upon…. and say he was a warrior.” 

The South African had struggled to finish his sentence and the emotional toll of Saturday’s defeat will linger but van Graan recognised that the next challenge will be picking the players back up in readiness for a final game of the URC regular season against Leinster back at Aviva Stadium on May 21 when Munster’s play-off draw fate will be determined.

“I’m not going to sugar coat this one, this will be on that we need to take our time with. To lose a game in this fashion and when, from a group point of view, you’ve put your heart and soul into it. So we’ll take our time.

“We believed we were going to win this game and move on to the next round next weekend, so we’ll take our time, that’s also the beauty of sport and the beauty of life is it gives you situations that you haven’t faced before and we’re in one of those now and we’ve qualified for the URC play-offs. We’re currently in second position and we are going to back here in two weeks’ time as the away team against a side that is top of the log and have already qualified. Obviously we’d like to have home quarter-final advantage. I’ll give that more thought later in the week."