Munster through and through.
It was a comment put to Peter O’Mahony when he faced the press at Munster’s University of Limerick headquarters. He positively bristled.
To suggest that O’Mahony was never going to leave Munster, despite being undervalued by the IRFU, is to sell short, and simplify, a man who has worked so ferociously hard to get to be where he is now. Would he still not be a wildly proud Munster man if he were to leave the province for a contract that would be so much better for himself and his young family?
All the talk since O’Mahony’s contract negotiations first slid into the wide open have been about how we surely could not leave because Munster means too much to him. He lives and breathes for Munster, they say. He can’t go because… sure, he’s Munster captain. Look at the passion he shows in the Munster jersey. He’d never leave that. He’d never leave us.
The union depends on this when it comes to contract negotiation season. The province does its part soon. Sometimes it is subtle, others times blunt and sledge-hammered.
We hear the opinions of fans, online, on radio and TV, saying O’Mahony simply can’t go because he is dyed in the wool Munster. It is stitched into his soul. Former players and coaches offer up their takes across the media spectrum and it all adds to the noise. Take, for example, Friday’s comments from Munster legend Ronan O’Gara at TV3’s Six Nations launch:
“If you grew up in Cork or Limerick you played for Munster, if you grew up in Dublin you play for Leinster. If we dilute that, we’re going to lose an awful lot of our identity. These players have to decide what they want to do and when they want to do it, it’s very much an individual decision.
“You can’t put a value on your reputation because when you finish playing you still have a huge reputation. You only have one reputation that stays with you after your playing days.
“Top players in this country, I hope they realise how great it is to be playing as a one club man. I think there is something extremely special about that.”
Identity. Reputation. One club man. Special.
The day before, Munster freed up some rehabbing players for PR event. The copy circulated, following interviews with Keith Earls and Jaco Taute, add to the weight. Earls, honest as ever, declares he will never leave Munster for foreign shores as long as he is wanted at the club. Taute talks of all that Munster are building and says he can’t see either O’Mahony or CJ Stander leaving.
Nice one. Job done. More pressure in print the day before a massive Champions Cup game.
Not Pete. Pete wouldn’t leave us. Not when we’re on the brink. Teams are always on the brink, you see. Forget about losing Donnacha Ryan and Simon Zebo one season after the other and another new coach arriving and needing to get up to speed.
And then comes the other argument. Pete can’t leave now. Not now. He’s Munster captain. If he goes, so soon after Zebo, who knows who’ll follow.
All the weight, the pressure, the emotional blackmail. Intended or not, the play on emotions is one of the best weapons available in keeping your favourite rugby player in town. Everyone involved knows the game at this stage but it is never easy for the player involved.
Put yourself in O’Mahony’s shoes as he goes about his day to day life. He is up for a new contract in his job and his employer is telling him, and the entire nation, that he’s not worth as much as he thinks. This could be his last decent contract in the game too as he will be in his 30s when it expires. He has already battled back from a couple of severe injuries.
He has just led his team through one of the most heart-breaking, thrilling and raw seasons in their history and then went through an emotional wringer on the Lions Tour. He returns back and gets a few weeks of down-time before going straight back at it and trying to be that redoubtable leader in another season of upheaval, all the while holding in-form Rhys Ruddock at bay and holding onto that Ireland No.6 jersey.
The new offer arrives and it is nowhere near what he expected so the negotiations go public and he now has to deal with that and the daily questions from friends, family and strangers. If all work contracts were carried out in a similar way, most of us would be in a bundle. It’s no wonder that O’Mahony has set a deadline – January 1. The deal is either on or it is off.
O’Mahony now goes into back-to-back Champions Cup clashes with Leicester Tigers and, to spice it all up, they are one of the three English clubs said to be interested in him. As captain, he will have some press duties to carry out too and the nostrils may well flare again if loyalty or having Munster Rugby coursing through his blood is mentioned again.
He’ll surely stay. That’s what most of us think. But if he goes, we shouldn’t be too surprised and we can lay off the emotional treacle.
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