O’Mahony set to get a battlefield commission as captain
Sport still has that irresistible ability to surprise. Three months ago, when England played Ireland in the Six Nations decider, Peter O’Mahony wasn’t even in the starting fifteen Ireland announced. Yesterday he captained the Lions to an excellent win over the Maori and unless I am very much mistaken this Saturday he will lead out the Lions again in the first Test against the All Blacks.
There is no obvious reason why Gatland would dispense with the backrow axis of O’Mahony, Sean O’Brien and Taulupe Faletau. Meanwhile, with a supercharged Maro Itoje now surely booked in alongside George Kruis in the second row at the expense of Alun Wyn Jones there is a vacancy as captain although both Sam Warburton and Jones will probably be on the bench.
Appointing O’Mahony as skipper would sit well with the Lions supporter from all four countries. O’Mahony is Munster, he is nails, he’s a bloody tough boy who you would want alongside you in the trenches. He is also a very skilful and canny rugby player who possesses a bit of X factor although he would dismiss such nonsense with a derisive grunt. In his own way he makes things happen.
There is a strong sense of the old style Lion about O’Mahony which many enjoy. His qualities are timeless and I fancy he would have slotted into almost any Lions team you can think of over the last 100 years or more. On and off the field.
And the Kiwis rate him. They won’t go overboard publically of course – perish the thought – but the fact the Kiwis Press don’t slag him off speaks volumes.
O’Mahony is a man of substance. He has captained every Ireland age group team and was one of the focal figures last autumn when an out-of-form Munster team had to come to terms with the tragic death of Anthony Foley. He rose magnificently to that challenge and others took their cue from him and the club responded to adversity by upping their game massively and becoming Munster again.
And to think he might not even have made this Lions tour. After coming back from a hideous knee injury incurred playing for Ireland against France in the 2015 World Cup, O’Mahony understandably took a while to regain his best form last season and with O’Brien, CJ Stander and Jamie Heaslip in residence it was a major task getting any game time for Ireland.
Without that exposure, he perhaps began to slip out of the reckoning for the Lions with so many excellent backrowers to choose from. It does, for example, still stretch credulity that not one of the Scotland backrow that outplayed their Welsh counterparts at Murrayfield got the nod.
And then Lady Luck played her mischievous hand. Jamie Heaslip tweaked a muscle in the warm-up against England, the highest profile game of the Six Nations and the sort of match prospective Lions coaches give great credence too.
And what happened? O’Mahony had an absolute stormer in all departments, not least in the lineout which was the one backrow area the Lions, having made the
decision to consider Itoje solely as a lock, didn’t really have covered.
From that moment on O’Mahony’s name was inked into Gatland’s squad and pencilled into his Test team though many pundits continued to exclude the Irish flanker from theirs.
None of this should be read as any slight on Sam Warburton, in fact it reflects very well on him and Gatland. It was spelt out from the start that Warburton was the tour captain in the wider sense, there were no promises of Test selection, and once he went down himself with a knee injury in April it was clear his Test place might be in jeopardy.
Warburton is by no means playing badly but he is still short of a gallop or two and for now, on pure form, doesn’t make the starting team. It’s not complicated or controversial.
And Warbuton wouldn’t be the first Lion captain not to make the starting fifteen although the other two major instances centre around the players who shouldn’t have been on the tour at all.
On the 1930 tour to Australia and New Zealand the Lions had the rather fanciful notion that Wavell Wakefield might come out of retirement to lead the party. At the last moment the former England captain conceded he was nowhere near fit enough and Doug Prentice, a good captain but a journeyman international forward, was appointed captain.
Prentice struggled to make an impression and played in just one of the four Tests although he did lead the Lions against Australia on the way home.
In 1966 Mike Campbell-Lamerton was a compromise choice when rugby politics got in the way and the Lions committee couldn’t agree whether Alun Pask or Ray McLoughlin should lead the party.
Campbell- Lamerton in his pomp was a Test standard back five forward but his Army commitments meant he hadn’t played for a year and old back and hip injuries from when he fell 60 foot out of a helicopter during fighting in Cyprus were beginning to slow him up.
He volunteered to stand down after the first Test which the Lions lost 20-3 but after they unluckily lost the second Test as well strenuous efforts were made to restore him to the team.
He was tried out at prop during training but when that didn’t work Delme Thomas was moved from lock to the front row allowing Campell Lamerton to return. That wasn’t really a success either and Campbell Lamerton again sat out the fourth Test.
All sorts can happen on a Lions tour. As O’Mahony is discovering.