Paul O'Connell: Peter O'Mahony faces battle to retain Ireland spot

"He’s going to face some stiff competition from some of the guys that are coming through now," O’Connell told the Irish Examiner.

STIFF COMPETITION: Paul O’Connell is hoping Ireland captain Peter O’Mahony can get the most out of potentially his final season as a player. Photo credit: Brian Lawless/PA Wire.

Paul O’Connell is hoping Ireland captain Peter O’Mahony can get the most out of potentially his final season as a player having signed a one-year contract extension for 2024-25, but warned the Test centurion he faces a battle to retain the green number six jersey.

The 35-year-old flanker put pen to paper on a new Munster contract, announced on April 12, ending speculation over his future playing intentions beyond his current IRFU central contract which comes to an end this summer.

O’Mahony lifted the Six Nations trophy last month after his 105th Ireland appearance and his decision to play on into a 16th season with his province, at least, was welcomed by the Ireland forwards coach, albeit with a caveat about his continuing place as a Test starter.

“It’s fantastic” O’Connell told the Irish Examiner during an interview to mark the IRFU’s extension of the ALDI Play Rugby program.

“I think it’s great for us (Ireland) as well. He’s one of those guys, like Johnny Sexton before him, he’s seen the pictures a lot so he makes very good decisions.

“It’s funny, it’s a really competitive position now, number six. Obviously Ryan Baird has established him with Leinster over the last few months. Tom Ahern down in Munster has done a good job as well. Cian Prendergast up in Connacht has been doing well and you have Nick Timoney who can play there up in Ulster.

“So it’s actually a really competitive position. It’s fantastic he’s signed on for another year and he’s going to face some stiff competition from some of the guys that are coming through now.”

O’Connell is encouraged by O’Mahony’s ability to stay relatively injury free and competitive into his mid-30s.

“As you get older you have to train harder, you have to train smarter. You have to leave your ego behind a little bit in terms of how you train, it becomes a lot about recovery and staying injury free and managing some of the injuries you had in the past.

“You rely on your smarts and your experience the same as Johnny did or even as Brad Thorne did when he played late into his career and I think Pete is good at that.

“He’s been good, I suppose, at trying to corner the market in what in what he’s good at, to allow him to compete for a place because he was out of the team not so long ago and he’s fought his way back into the team.

“And every time we come back in it starts from scratch again and you’ve got to prove yourself again so it will be interesting to see. He’s been injury free for a long time now as well which, you know, I remember Jamie Heaslip when we played together, he was injury free a lot so you’re just accumulating fitness all the time.

"So you’re not resetting back to zero every so often with an injury and that’s one of the reasons he was such a consistent player.

“So hopefully Peter can stay injury free now and that last year he has can be an enjoyable one.”