O’MAHONY TOWERS AS ENGLAND FALL SHORT

Called upon at the last minute, the Munster man gave a display which shows why he should captain Ireland

TRY and tell Peter O’Mahony that Ireland had nothing to play for here. If there was a channel for the desperate hunger that seized over 50,000 people present, it was this extraordinary man of Munster.

He made one of the final tackles of the match. Fittingly, Ireland’s best player tackled England’s best, their own sensational No6 Maro Itoje.

Itoje was magnificent but O’Mahony was something else altogether. His performance was of a different order. It was as urgent and as powerful as the noise and the rain. It was elemental.

From his lead, others followed. Rory Best was the team captain, Johnny sexton one of the lieutenants. And the out half was reliably influential, surviving a series of lousy late English hits to kick two penalties and a conversion to Iain Henderson’s first-half try.

O’Mahony, though, was the distillation of the best of Ireland’s performance. He wasn’t named in the team announced last Thursday, but with Jamie Heaslip out and CJ stander moved to No 8, he got his start.

The announcement of that change before the match summoned a mighty roar from the crowd. supporters love him, for his attitude as much as the technical virtues he brings to a contest.

There is a snarl built into most everything he does on the field. Cussedness is dug deep into his game, and it was an asset Ireland would need.

They practically survived on it in the second half, as England stirred themselves following an awful first half to fight on their backs for consecutive Grand slams.

Rain fell in torrents throughout the second period, and the Irish scrum got stuck in reverse. Withstanding the growing white force looked a forbidding task, but they did it. The example of O’Mahony was paramount here.

As England cut loose a big, experienced bench, Andrew Conway emerged after the break to make his debut. Dan leavy, brought onto the bench once O’Mahony was promoted, won his second cap.

He had made his debut against Canada last November, playing 13 minutes. luke McGrath, who came on for Kieran Marmion to win his own second cap, got a minute longer on his debut in that Canada match.

Ireland were stuck together with tape and hope, but it was enough.

The lights were dimmed shortly after 7pm for the presentation of the championship trophy to Dylan Hartley and the England team. The ground was quickly emptying with Irish fans spilling into the drenched night while English supporters remained, trying to make the best of a penny after losing a pound.

When the trophy was presented to Hartley, it was as quiet as Aviva stadium had been all day.

From shortly before 5pm, the atmosphere in the ground started to tighten. The feeling of a great event was sharpened by the frazzling effect of sensory and information overloads before the match.

The best sporting occasions should have such an effect, and here there was the wet, the noise and attention split between TVs and the pitch.

It was the 100th minute in the day’s second game when France were awarded the decisive try in Paris, the score and the conversion securing Ireland’s top-four world ranking.

The effect of such an extraordinary outcome was a delay to the start of the match in Dublin. Ireland and England had to warm up again after the three anthems and the pleasantries with the President, as their game couldn’t begin until the saga in Paris was concluded.

When it did commence, Ireland set an aggressive early tone and, to their credit, they maintained it thereafter.

As reactions go, this was a spiky one. Ireland shut down England like a plumber tying off leaks. The visitors were celebrated for their ability to create attacks from even improbable situations.

Ireland had to withstand that threat of flooding, of seeing their season submerged under an irresistible gush.

In their approach, they yoked aggression to discipline, with sexton, typically, personifying the best of their attitude. Donnacha Ryan was chippy, too, sending James Haskell sprawling with a push as the players ran to one lineout. There was no rugby played in the spirit of the sevens game – even if one brilliant Garry Ringrose pass and break by Keith Earls briefly pulsed with promise – but after a spring of labour, transformation on that scale was not a reasonable prospect anyway.

There was, however, supreme dedication, in particular to rucking where Irish players scattered English poachers time and again. so intense was their application that one could only wonder how Ireland were to maintain that level of work for another 40 minutes.

It wasn’t plausible they could, not against opponents this good who had so much to play for.

Beautifully, though, Ireland survived the eventual English awakening. Truth be told, it was not an overpowering effort from England, more in keeping with what they had produced against Wales and Italy than in the rout of scotland.

No repeat would be tolerated here. This has been a middling spring for Ireland, but it was saved by this brave, brilliant display. O’Mahony led the resistance. He will be leading his country soon.

He simply must.

27 Total number of minutes Leavy, Conway and Luke McGrath had played for Ireland before yesterday