THERE’S A CERTAIN similarity between the pair of them, Peter O’Mahony and Jamie Cudmore.
These are rugby players with distinctive ‘game faces,’ visages that speak of aggression. If the pushing and shoving starts on Saturday in the Millennium Stadium, we’d wager that O’Mahony and Cudmore will be central.
The chest bumping and posturing is far from what these two are all about however, both men playing integral roles in their sides’ lineout operations. O’Mahony is a vital breakdown foot soldier for Joe Schmidt’s Ireland, while Cudmore blasts rucks and carries ball for Canada.
O’Mahony’s defensive mobility and agility is a plus, while both players are more than capable of releasing a pass before the tackle.
The 37-year-old lock will be key to Kieran Crowley’s side this weekend in Cardiff, a central figure to their faint hopes of an upset.
“I’m not 100% sure how many caps he has for Clermont but he has a high number of first-class games under his belt, he’s a very experienced player,” said O’Mahony of Cudmore this afternoon in Carton House.
He’s hugely physical. I’ve played against him a couple of times and he really drives Clermont’s pack. He’s a real go-to guy for them and I’d imagine he’s the same for Canada.
“He’s someone that we’ve looked at hard and someone that we’ll have to pay a huge amount of respect to on Saturday.”
Cudmore has certainly calmed as he’s grown older, although he remains an uncompromising physical force.
O’Mahony respects that style of leadership.
“Absolutely, he’s a hugely tough opponent, hugely physical and a good athlete, a very good rugby player. So if you’re going to name off all those attributes he’s got to be someone you’re impressed by.”
The early pages of any ‘Causing a Shock at the World Cup’ guide would surely involve encouragement to get under the favourite’s skin, incite them into losing focus on the game plan and instead concentrating on off-the-ball matters.
It’s a classic formula early in fixtures where one team is heavily playing against the odds, but O’Mahony and Ireland aren’t expecting the Canadians to bring anything other than a clean approach.
It’s something that we don’t have any interest in,” said O’Mahony. “I think it’s pretty much gone out of the game of rugby at this stage. There’s too much going on, there’s too much at stake to be worried about little things like that.
“We’ll worry about implementing our game plan, and stopping a very good Canadian side.”
- This article and its headline were updated to change an error indicating that Jamie Cudmore, rather than Tyler Ardron, was the Canada captain.
