IRELAND CAPTAIN PETER O’Mahony said he wasn’t expecting to get the call from Andy Farrell asking him to take over from the retired Johnny Sexton as skipper.
34-year-old O’Mahony will lead Ireland into the upcoming Six Nations and feels this is possibly the biggest honour of his career.
“I wasn’t expecting it, to be honest,” said O’Mahony at today’s Six Nations launch at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin.
“A special phone call to get and then you’ve got to go and do your job for the week with Munster.
“To get that phone call from Andy, it was such a special thing, to be honest. A huge honour and I am grateful to be asked.
“It is slightly different to be asked to do it for a full campaign, for a Six Nations, and one of the biggest honours of my career.”
O’Mahony’s central contract with the IRFU expires at the end of this season and his future remains uncertain, even if there is a growing sense that he will be offered an extension of some sort by Munster and/or the IRFU.
The Cork man wasn’t willing to discuss his contract situation at today’s launch.
“This is always the time of year that this stuff comes around,” said O’Mahony.
“There’s been lots of talk about it the last couple of weeks so I’m looking to leave it at that. We have a whole Six Nations kicking off and I’m delighted to be talking about that and park that stuff.”
O’Mahony was replaced in the 66th of Munster’s defeat to Northampton on Saturday in the Champions Cup and his provincial head coach Graham Rowntree said they would need to check on “a couple of little bangs.”
However, speaking today O’Mahony indicated that he’s expecting to be fit to face France in Ireland’s Six Nations opener in Marseille on 2 February. He said there were no injuries to report.
“No, I expect to be fit,” said O’Mahony.
O’Mahony had indicated after last year’s painful World Cup quarter-final exit that he would consider retiring from international duty.
Just a few months later, he is the Ireland captain.
“It certainly was,” said O’Mahony when asked if his thought of retiring was serious.
“It was a tough few weeks after that, but it wasn’t the right time to make any calls given the circumstances and I haven’t thought about it, it came around there where I was getting back into Munster stuff and the normality after the whole thing.
“I was enjoying it again, to get a phone call like the one I got last week is a very special one and I’m glad I got the opportunity to represent my country again.
“In hindsight, it wouldn’t have been the most pleasant way to leave the jersey where we did end up.”
