Peter the great
O’mahony completes remarkable rise to Lions captaincy Daly, Williams and Jones in Gatland’s surprise selection
At Cork Constitution FC, they are looking forward to adding another British and Irish Lions jersey to the framed collection proudly displayed on the clubhouse wall. The red shirt of Saturday’s Lions Test captain, Peter O’mahony, will join those worn by such famous names as Noel Murphy, Tom Kiernan, Donal Lenihan, Ronan O’gara, Donncha O’callaghan and Simon Zebo.
Red is the colour in Cork – not only is it in the county colour for Gaelic games but it is synonymous with Munster, the province the blindside flanker captains.
They say the All Blacks have developed their tradition of excellence because Kiwi kids everywhere are born virtually with a ball in hand. It was the same story for O’mahony, 27. He has been larking about with a ball at the Con, as the club are known, since he was three, thanks to his father John’s long association with them.
Brian Hickey, Munster forwards coach from 2002 to 2008 and coach of Con since 2009, remembers O’mahony as a toddler through to him becoming a senior player for the club’s first team when he was in the early stages of his Munster career. Hickey, a dentist, recalls how the young back row was always ready to take on extra responsibilities – and to challenge older players.
Hickey said: “I would have first taken serious notice of him at a schools game. He was playing for ‘Pres’ [Presentation Brothers College, Cork].
Even when he was a 16-year-old, what I found remarkable from watching him was that he was playing with guys his elder yet he was calling the line-out for the team.”
Fast forward to the early days at Munster, and O’mahony’s mentality was just the same. Hickey recalls: “I remember in his very first game at Munster that he played with Paul O’connell and he went to clear out a ruck. I just thought he feels he needs to announce himself at any stage he steps up to.” Former Munster teammate and veteran scrum-half Peter Stringer describes O’mahony as a reserved character who chooses his moments to speak, and makes all the more impact for it. Stringer says: “He was initially just a quiet guy. But when he puts his mind to it, he just gets down to the hard work. at an early age, he was a guy who if he saw something wasn’t right, he would speak his mind.
‘He showed great maturity in how he handled himself and the group’
“It is a mark of the guy – he reminds me of Paul O’connell – in how he has this calming nature about him but when you get to that training environment and playing the game, he has got this switch. You can almost see in his eyes that he means business. There is no better example than a guy who is a captain, leads by example and he doesn’t have to say much but everyone takes note of the work that he does. It makes him a natural leader.”
Hickey believes the tragic death of Munster coach Anthony Foley last October prepared O’mahony for captaining the Lions in a Test.
“His ability to be a Lion really came home in and around the time of Anthony Foley’s death,” Hickey said. “As a player, but particularly as a talisman of the group and captain, he showed incredible maturity in those few weeks. How he handled himself, how he handled the wider group, stuck out and said that he had arrived.”
Hickey’s voice cracks as he says: “It was the greatest tribute to Antony Foley that here was the current captain of the team speaking about him and here he was almost hewn out of the same rock. Anthony Foley would have been incredibly proud of the player and person Peter had become. All the values Anthony epitomised would be ones that Peter has in abundance.”