IT’S BEEN ONE of those seasons where there’s been a lot of chatter swirling around Peter O’Mahony. Between his decision to step down as Munster captain, his subsequent promotion to the Ireland captaincy and the confusion around his contract which rumbled along throughout the Six Nations, there’s a fair bit to discuss when the Corkman sits down in Munster’s media room on a sunny Tuesday afternoon.
It’s a big week for the province, with old foes Glasgow waiting in the URC semi-finals on Saturday, but O’Mahony is happy to cover some old ground he has yet to discuss publicly.
First, there’s the contract. In the immediate aftermath of Ireland’s World Cup quarter-final defeat to New Zealand, O’Mahony admitted he’d have to consider his international future. Yet with a new IRFU central contract seemingly not forthcoming, the 34-year-old was appointed Ireland captain by Andy Farrell, taking on the most prestigious role in the squad while his future remained up in the air.
O’Mahony captained Ireland to Six Nations success and in April, a new one-year extension with Munster was announced. As O’Mahony sees it, the process could have been smoother.
“It could have been done a lot quicker, yeah,” says O’Mahony. “It was messy.
“Look it, if it was done 12 weeks earlier it would have been a lot easier for everyone. But it wasn’t and it panned out the way it did. That’s business as well. That’s the way things go. That’s part and parcel of the job.
“To be honest, I’ve always been very lucky with the way my contract has been over the years,” he continues.
“I think this is the first time it has been drawn out a bit. I wouldn’t like to be doing it every time. But I’m at the stage of my career when I can separate those two things. I wasn’t going to come in here on a Monday or a Saturday or any day of the week and let things like these affect me. That’s not what I’m about, you know.
“Parts of it needed to be sorted out but that’s off the pitch stuff. I needed to be engaged here. I needed to perform well, and that was the end of it for me.”
O’Mahony admits he took time to consider his playing future but only entered the negotiations when his thinking was clear. There was no need to plead his case with Munster.
“No, not to sound arrogant but I don’t need to state my case around here. I’ve played for this club for a long time now and I’ve never gone into contract negotiations saying I don’t want to stay. That’s the first thing I’d say, up front, ‘I want to stay, I want you to look after me fairly’. It was the same this time around it just took a bit longer and look, it got sorted and that’s the way it went.
I had the decision to make after the World Cup, whether I wanted to play on or not and I took a few weeks and there was arguments to finish up, from me particularly, but I think it would have been a rushed call.
“I’m delighted with the decision I made. I didn’t want to have any regrets, that was the biggest thing. I didn’t want any regret on anything and I think I would have sat there next year thinking ‘I could have gone again’.
“I’m not the kind of guy who’s going to be fingernails in the door stuff. This is my last contract playing professional rugby anywhere, well, not anywhere but this is my last one and it means I can really enjoy it now. I can plan and have last games, you know, last games at Christmas, and at Thomond Park.
“I certainly have no interest in one of these long goodbyes but I can tick things off in my head as I go on next season. But hopefully there’s 10, 12 days left in this one yet.”
O’Mahony adds that he would “never say never” to doing a season abroad but feels this new contract will be his last.
So that’s one more year with Munster, and perhaps, another with Ireland. O’Mahony is keen to be involved on the summer Tour to South Africa and beyond, should his form warrant the call-up.
“It [playing for Ireland] will be in my plans if I can play well enough to get picked. That’s the only way. I’d love to keep playing for Ireland, 100%, but it’s up to me to play well enough to do that.”
As O’Mahony is quick to stress, there are more pressing concerns. Saturday’s semi-final date with Glasgow looks a sticky fixture and O’Mahony says he hasn’t even allowed himself to think about the prospect of playing in a URC final at Thomond Park a week later.
Stepping down as Munster captain has removed some of the pressures that come with a big game week, but the butterflies still rise in the stomach as Saturday approaches.
Anxiety is always there, that hasn’t changed. You’re always nervous, it’s good to be nervous. Maybe not as dominant as before, but certainly 70% of it is still there.
“I don’t do anything differently [since stepping down as captain]. I’m enjoying it, I have to say.
“I’ve a bit more time in certain things, I can see things from a different angle at times, I can stand back a bit more and have a look from afar.
“I’m still obviously involved in the leadership group and the decision-making around the place. I think it’s good as well for me to be around when Tadhg [Beirne] is captain or whoever is there as captain, for them to lean on me, give my input and advice.
“I can do things like pressurise the referee a bit from a different angle like I couldn’t do before. I’m enjoying the step back a little bit from that side of things.”
He’s no longer the captain, but O’Mahony’s leadership and experience will still form an important part of Munster’s preparation this week. The Munster v Glasgow rivalry has become one of the spiciest in the URC and while cools heads will be needed on Saturday, it’s clear O’Mahony will still revel in that extra bit of edge between the two teams.
“There’s been something there for a long time with us, definitely, but it’s a great competitive rivalry at the end of it all. But there’s definitely a rivalry there.
“It kind of started around the time of that Axel game, and I think even a little bit before it. But, yeah, it’s been there for a long time now, and it is a little bit different.
“It’s almost… I’m not going to say interpro stuff, but 100% there’s something there and I have no doubt it’ll be there on Saturday. It’s about who manages that best and who uses it to the best of their ability.”
The show goes on.
