PETE GIVES NO GUARANTEES OVER FUTURE
MUNSTER skipper Peter O’mahony has confirmed that he could be following Simon Zebo out of the province by the end of the year.
But Irish scrum-half Conor Murray does not believe that Munster are about to lose a string of big names.
O’mahony refused to commit his future to the Reds when pushed on the issue at Munster’s High Performance Centre in UL yesterday.
It is a massive week for the province as they host Aviva Premiership giants Leicester Tigers on Saturday in the first of the back-to-back Champions Cup fixtures.
Corkman O’mahony (above) has played 96 times for Munster and has 42 caps for Ireland, as well as captaining the British and Irish Lions for their first Test with the All Blacks during the summer.
But with winger Zebo (inset) set for a lucrative deal in France next season, O’mahony could well follow him. The 28-year-old said: “It is European Cup week with Munster so it’s very easy to focus the mind. What is going on is a business situation, it’s business deals, it’s separate.
“Your emotion is with the club and getting it right for the weekend. The lads are dealing with it. It’s a different part of my life at the moment.
“I might have to make a yes or no call but that is just it. There has to be a decision made at some stage. I would have liked to have had it done sooner than this to be honest, it is just the way it has fallen. To be fair to David Nucifora, he has got a lot of guys to do.”
He added: “I am hoping to get it done by January one way or the other. That is the business side of it done. It’s Leicester for me this week.”
But team-mate Murray (inset) believes losing big names is not a worry for the province.
He said: “It genuinely isn’t. I know it gets talked about in the media because there are rumours about people moving clubs, salaries, not coming to an agreement with the IRFU, that’s just the time of year it is and we are all used to that.
“I know Pete’s contract is up, CJ Stander’s is up and we obviously know what happened with Zeebs, hopefully they all get sorted.”
The Reds have an injury crisis at loosehead prop with only Dave Kilcoyne fit. New boss Johann van Graan has not ruled out signing some cover and said: “If the need really arises we will have a look at that but we are just taking it day by day.”