'He didn't grow up in Munster but a proper Munster man by the time he left'

Taking the five match points for the fourth game in succession will give Ireland an unassailable Six Nations lead.

England defence coach Felix Jones during the warm-up before facing Wales in the Six Nations. Picture: ©INPHO/Billy Stickland

A bonus-point victory away to England this evening will secure back-to-back Guinness Six Nations titles with a week to spare but Peter O’Mahony is determined not to let that knowledge derail Ireland’s quest for another championship clean sweep.

The defending champions and 2023 Grand Slam winners go into today’s penultimate-round clash with a six-point lead at the top of the standings and a home meeting with Scotland to follow in Dublin next Saturday.

Taking the maximum five match points for the fourth game in succession will give them an unassailable lead on the second-placed Scots, secure a championship record 12th consecutive Six Nations win and tie an Irish-record fifth win in a row over England that would equal the 1972-76 sequence of victories.

All very desirable ambitions and all very attainable for such a quality Irish squad driven by a desire for constant improvement yet the Ireland captain knows those goals will not be reached by focusing on the end result.

“They have to be an inspiration because that’s what we’re all here for,” O’Mahony said yesterday. “That’s what the competition is and what we’re all competing for, to do the things you’re talking about.

“We’ve touched on it but probably not for a few weeks now. We know that it’s… not that it’s disruptive but it’s irrelevant to be talking about it at this point because your performances are what show everyone what you’re thinking really and tomorrow, to keep everything that we want to do alive is a performance, and it has to be the best one we have put in so far.

“I think we have grown through the competition and tomorrow has to be the best of the whole lot, and the rest of it will sort itself out if that’s the case.” 

22 May 2017; Munster technical coach Felix Jones along with players Conor Murray, Peter O'Mahony, and Billy Holland. Picture: Diarmuid Greene/Sportsfile

That one of the men trying to stop Ireland is former Munster team-mate Felix Jones, England’s new defence coach, is not lost on O’Mahony whose knowledge of the former full-back’s personality suggests to him his homework on his homeland will be extensive.

“He hasn't really left rugby so he knows, from having known him and known his work ethic, he would have done a huge amount of work on us, be it with the Springboks or his new role with England.

"I know how diligent and passionate and what a good coach he is. So I'm sure he's well up to speed on our game.”

Now a two-time World Cup winner having been on South Africa’s coaching ticket in 2019 and 2023, Jones’s coaching career has gone from strength to strength since quitting his role as a Munster assistant to Johann van Graan in 2019.

"I got on really well with him,” O’Mahony said of Jones, who retired due to a neck injury in 2015 at the age of 28.

“He was quite an inspirational character when he played with Munster, one of the fittest, one of the most driven and passionate guys, I know he didn't grow up in Munster but a proper Munster man by the time he left and when he was playing.

"Disappointed when he left? Look, I'm a professional, he's a professional, guys have to do what they've got to do and what a career he's forged for himself, and hard to argue with one of the most decorated sports people with regard to what he's done in his playing and coaching career.

"Of course it was the right decision for him, looking back, and you'd never begrudge him that.”