Peter O'Mahony: Pre-game nerves, playing forever and contract talk
MIND GAME: Ireland captain Peter O'Mahony. Pic: Dan Sheridan, Inpho
You’ll have no doubt heard the Ireland players waxing lyrical about their World Cup experience.
Not the ending of it, of course, but the joy and fulfilment they took from the months spent together and the umbilical attachment they experienced with the travelling fans.
Peter O’Mahony has featured in that chorus but one part of the experience was a nightmare.
TV has long dictated the ebbs and flows of these major tournaments and Ireland’s profile meant that transferred into an abundance of late night shows.
Nightmare territory for the Munster back row.
“Personally, the late kick-offs for me are utter torture. You know, waiting around all day to kick a match off. Like, the World Cup was the epitome of torture, 9pm in the evening, so you are hanging around all day, waiting for it.”
This isn’t the first time the Ireland skipper has laid bare his pre-game nerves. He spoke two years ago about feeling “physically ill” in the run-up to big weekends so a 2.15pm start today does at least eat into the time where he has to sit and stew.
Some people need their own space, O’Mahony craves company. He’ll jump at the chance to pore over some footage on a laptop with a teammate.
And he has been known to come back to the hotel from coffee with one group and go straight back out with another.
His was one of the arms that shot skyward in a meeting after the defeat of France when Andy Farrell asked the room who among them had been chewing their nails in the approach to that Six Nations opener.
It’s mad, really.
O’Mahony is 34 now, he’s over ten years at this level and has breached a century of caps. Experience has taught him ways and means to combat all this, which is just as well as the nerves have become more of an issue rather than less as time goes on.
“I'd often describe it as doing your Leaving Cert with 60,000 people correcting it live and another whatever [many] watching at home, except doing it every weekend. You've to find a way to find some sleep during the week before your first test.”
He makes his 50th Six Nations appearance in Ballsbridge today. It’s a staging post few Irish players have reached but he played down that landmark by playing up the honour that comes with every appearance for his country regardless of number.
He knows that’s clichéd, but who can say it’s anything but true?
To hear him talk in the mixed zone after that loss to the All Blacks last November was to wonder if we’d seen the last of him in green but here he is now wearing the armband, laughing and smiling before a game that could take Ireland a step closer to history.
He cut any talk of a back-to-back off at the pass but it was done with a delicate touch.
Warnings as to the Welsh threat were interspersed with softer musings about the enjoyment he takes from the captaincy and the “little perks” that come with that seniority.
“Johnny's had it handy for the last 5/6 years,” he joked of his predecessor. “Those little touches here and there, I'm loving it. It is a great group to be around and it’s certainly easier when you are winning.”
It was reported during the week that O’Mahony and Conor Murray were being offered new contracts beyond the summer.
Murray signalled his wish to stay with club and country as long as possible last Tuesday and his teammate is clearly of a mind to put pen to paper.
“Like I said, it is a good group, it is a good environment, I'm learning all the time. If you tell me I can sit here forever, I'd play forever, but that's not the case. As I said, I'll let you know when there is white smoke.”
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