Passion, character, never settling for anything less.
If you talk to anyone about Peter O’Mahony, they’ll talk about the same thing. His drive. His hunger.
They’ll tell you about the days in Presentation College when he’d have the team training indoors in the off-season and batting balls down the gym hall that weren’t thrown up high enough for him to go stretching for.
He’s not the sort of animal who is wired to accept second best or sub-standard and the whole rugby world could see that on Saturday night when he hounded the All Blacks on Lansdowne Road so much so that you were half expecting him to turn around with his arms stretched to say, ‘Put on more of them. Line them up.’
It was a hell of a win against New Zealand and whatever anyone says to try to demean it, to call it a friendly, they’re deliberately ignoring the fact that rugby – out of all the sports – has managed to preserve the sanctity of a Test match.
In fact, other sports should be envious that a one-off game with no trophy or no qualification bearing can mean so much to two rugby teams. That they both actually really want to win and they just want to do it for pride. That’s special and it’s not something to be poked fun at.
The best team in the world took on the second best team in the world and both of them were mad for the win. The World Cup will mean more, of course it will, but whilst this is tremendous preparation for it, it’s still a game and a memory that will be cherished.
Peter O’Mahony was man of the match that night and his stripping of the ball when New Zealand were in for a try will form part of an iconic highlight reel.
Tonight, he’s going to be on The Late Late Show with Ryan Tubridy.
A Cork man through and through, O’Mahony’s team mates always have a smile on their faces when they’re asked about him. Yes, he has bite and he has desire but he’s also there to make fun and to be made fun of.
Tadhg Furlong’s appearance after the Grand Slam win on the RTÉ prime time show went down a treat with the whole country.
“Every scrum, she’s throwing holy water at the tele” – Tadhg Furlong on his granny
Tonight, O’Mahony, who captained the Lions last summer, will have a fascinating story to tell.
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