BEST SET FOR THE BIGGEST OF TESTS

PETER’S FULL OF PRAISE FOR REVOLUTIONARY COACH JOE

struggle with any period of readjustment to the demands Schmidt placed on his players.

The 28-year-old Munster skipper added: “Guys realised what a good environment he was trying to create and everyone wanted to be part of it.

“What keeps him relevant is the fact he is ahead of it, he’s always learning. There’s never a session where there’s not something to improve on – and if that’s the case, that keeps guys hungry. If you’re not interested you’re in the wrong place.”

O’mahony is also constantly striving to improve and has had a good year since he was catapulted into the line-up for the final Six Nations game against England last March at the expense of the injured Jamie Heaslip.

His performance earned him a place in the Lions squad and he ended up captaining the side in the first Test against the All Blacks.

But the Corkman recently admitted that he is only feeling back to his best now after the cruciate injury he suffered at the 2015 World Cup.

He said: “It took me a while to get back to where I wanted to be but over the last couple of months I’ve generally enjoyed myself. Then the last few weeks have just been enjoyable and that’s key for professional rugby, you have to enjoy what you are doing. A lot of us, if not all of us, certainly are in the last couple of weeks.

“There’s a great balance in what we have. There isn’t a guy here who doesn’t want to improve and add to the group. “At the same time, there are great characters and there’s good craic around the place. Young fellas are hanging around with some of the older fellas. There’s no cliques, no bulls***.”

LONDON Irish have made Les Kiss head coach with Declan Kidney appointed as his technical director.

done it in some big games. With the way the championship started for us, this is probably the biggest game potentially for an Ireland team under Joe. “That’s because we’ve put ourselves in a really strong position and now the pressure is on to make...