Captain O'Mahony sets the tone for Ireland team's next ascent

Peter O'Mahony has conducted himself carefully in his elongating roll call of duties with the fourth estate through duties with Munster, Ireland and the British and Irish Lions.

Ireland captain Peter O'Mahony talking at the 2024 Guinness Men's Six Nations Launch.

Maybe this is just a media thing, but Peter O’Mahony has a habit of letting loose a long sigh before he answers questions. It reminds you of a man who has just returned to his car to see a parking fine stuck to the windshield.

Now 34, he has conducted himself carefully in his elongating roll call of duties with the fourth estate through duties with Munster, Ireland and the British and Irish Lions, and in the sponsored gigs that have bore his stamp and likeness here and there.

Guarded, would probably best describe it.

He cut a familiar figure at Monday’s Six Nations launch in the Guinness Storehouse, stonewalling questions on the details of his ongoing contract talks with Munster, and insisting that his style of leadership won’t change now that he is Ireland’s latest skipper.

“This is always the time of year that this stuff comes around,” he said of the contract. “There’s been lots of talk about it the last couple of weeks so I’m looking to leave it at that. We have a whole Six Nations kicking off, I’m delighted to talk about that and park that stuff.” Delighted is definitely stretching it, but his insistence on holding back with parts of his personality only add to his credentials as leader. If this was a war movie, O’Mahony would be the unknowable and gruff sergeant-major with the air of mystery and hidden depths.

"There are some people who walk into the room and make things feel right,” said Andy Farrell.

His suitability as heir to Johnny Sexton’s throne is all too obvious. No other player in the latest Ireland squad has that same indefinable air. Not world-class talents like Caelan Doris or Dan Sheehan. Not other skippers like Iain Henderson, Garry Ringrose or James Ryan.

The assumption is that he won’t see out this four-year World Cup cycle but that overlooks the fact that Sexton and Rory Best both assumed the permanent leadership mantle late in their careers and made it all the way to the next big dance despite their advancing years.

O’Mahony has admitted to having harboured thoughts of retirement in the wake of that crushing loss to New Zealand last October but his take on the period after that, and his excitement about what is now to come, set the perfect tone for a team looking for a new Everest.

O'Mahony and Gareth Davies of Wales during the launch.

“I haven’t played a huge amount of rugby since the World Cup. I got a bang on the shoulder but I have been tipping away. Took a bit of time but got back into it and … obviously it was tough for a few weeks but you are back to loving it fairly quickly.

“You’re back home and back into the groove with Munster and you very quickly get the email to say you’re picked for the Six Nations. That email for me is still special. I still have a few of the old ones from when we used to get the letters sent home.

“Not everyone gets that experience of driving up the road to meet 35 of the best players in the country and, at the same time, some of the best people you have ever come across. You can’t help but be excited by the whole thing.” If you want a captain who can play the right mood music then you’d want the guy to be fit with it. O’Mahony only returned from injury for Munster’s Champions Cup win in Toulon but left before the end of the loss to Northampton last Saturday with another cloud over his availability.

Graham Rowntree spoke of the “little bangs” his talisman has accumulated in recent times but he is lightly raced since that World Cup exit and he was quick to assert his readiness for the start of the Six Nations next Friday week when Ireland kick off away to France.

Farrell has been adamant that this tournament does not mark the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. He abhors the very word ‘cycle’ at this stage and his choices of captain and squad feed into that idea of an ongoing project rather than a greenfield site.

The plan was that head coach and captain would return to the team hotel after the Six Nations launch for a meeting that would tease out any lingering issues from France 2023, and O’Mahony’s role in starting this next chapter off on the right foot was stencilled into every word here.

“Andy spoke of a review and of course we will have a review. You have a decision to make whether you want the ending of the World Cup… Loads of us have had different parts of our careers that have had tough defeats and they’re the ones that make the rest of it better.

“They’re the ones you remember the most,” he continued. “When you have good days, those are the ones that stood to you. Those experiences, all the good that we did last year – that’s not gone, far from it.

“You have a decision to make: do you want that game to make you better or do you want it to hang over you? You want to be better for it and get ahead of the games and be competing for Championships, which is exactly what we want to do.”