Ireland captain Peter O’Mahony has said that his side produced one of their best performances of the year in Saturday’s 26-21 win over Australia in Melbourne.
O’Mahony captained Ireland to their first win on Australian soil since 1979 with tries from Andrew Conway and Tadhg Furlong setting up a series tying win after Ireland lost to the Wallabies last week in Brisbane.
The Munster flanker admitted that Ireland were taught a few lessons in the first Test and that they needed a big performance if they were going to tie the series at one win apiece.
“Yeah look we knew how good that Australian side is,” O’Mahony told Fox Sports in his post-match interview.
“Obviously last week they taught us a good few lessons so we knew how good we had to be today. It’s taken one of our best performances of the year to beat a side of the quality they have.
“It shows the respect that we have for them, especially playing them at home.”
O’Mahony also added that Ireland looked to target the Australian breakdown before the game and that they needed to do a better job of stifling Wallabies flankers Michael Hooper and David Pocock if they were going to win.
“It’s the hub of the game in rugby, especially when you’re playing against Australia with the likes of Hooper and Pocock” O’Mahony said in reference to the breakdown.
“We saw the damage they did last week and we knew that if we were to give ourselves a shot today we had to be good there today and we were to be fair. It was certainly an improvement on that today.”
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Former Ireland flanker Stephen Ferris said that O’Mahony was fantastic against the Wallabies and that he was more effective at the breakdown than Pocock.
“He was tremendous, just so physical around the breakdown,” said Ferris on Sky Sports’ post-match show.
“He kind of ‘out-Pococked’ Pocock on the day. I think it was three turnovers, three penalties by Peter O’Mahony.
“He’s the captain of the team. He led from the front. He might not be this really natural athlete getting across the gainline and making huge big carries but he brings experience, he brings a lot of leadership in the crucial times that we talk about and he was right in the middle of them today.
“I thought he was absolutely fantastic and he’s one of the big players in this Irish team.”
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