Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MUNSTER BORN AND RED
O’mahony salutes brilliant Blues but says his province will chase success their way
THERE is not one thing Peter O’mahony would take from Leinster’s winning machine to make Munster run more smoothly.
The Reds skipper will once more lead his province into action against their old foes at the RDS on Saturday in the hope that the new record of successive Leinster wins in the rivalry – six – won’t be extended.
Leinster have won 16 of the last 18 meetings of the sides, the latest coming four weeks ago in a PRO14 final that saw them completely dominate their opponents.
Blue has been the colour for so long now that O’mahony doesn’t need to remind anyone within the Reds set-up of what is at stake.
“Guys know the recent record,” he said. “I don’t need to spell it out for them.
“It’s great to be challenging yourself this regularly against a team like them but we need to win. For lots of reasons, we need to win.
“That hasn’t changed the last three or four times that we’ve been beaten by them, we’ve said the same thing.
“It’s just up to us to figure out a way. Again, you’re playing a very, very good side, which is great – it’s making us better every time.
“But obviously we’re not here to be on the losing side. We want to win, so that’s the focus.”
The Reds haven’t lifted a trophy since beating Leinster in the Magners League final a decade ago while the Blues are hoping to win a second European crown in four seasons to go with their PRO14 four-in-a-row.
Despite that, the dyed-inthe-wool Munster talisman wants his team to be successful by forging their own path.
“We’re very different clubs, even though we’re very close in lots of ways,” he said.
“But we’ve got our own way of doing things down here and it’s not about wanting what other clubs have, not just in Ireland or in Europe, it’s about creating our own path and our own way.
“All I want us to do is win and to do it our way. I don’t have an appetite for what other clubs want to do.
“Some of them are doing it very well but we’ll figure out our own way.”
Joey Carbery’s return from long-term injury can help that happen, as can the return of RG Snyman after his ACL injury only seven minutes into his debut last August.
The Springbok is on course to have some squad involvement at training next week.
“Hopefully we’ll see him within the next month or five or six weeks, he needs to get back up to speed. It’s good to see him not being too far off,” said O’mahony.
Simon Zebo’s return from Paris this summer will be another boost.
“It’s great to have him back, above all he’s a special rugby player and he’ll know himself he has a lot of work to do to come back in but no better man for big occasions,” O’mahony said.
“At times when we’ve needed to play well he’s always stepped up to the plate for us.
“It’s always good to have another Cork man in the squad – and another Munster man back in the club.”
The flipside is that CJ Stander, Billy Holland and Tommy O’donnell are only weeks away now from retirement.
Flanker O’mahony added: “They’re going to be a big loss for us, a lot of caps are going to retire at the end of the season and it’ll be difficult trying to replace that experience, certainly.”