WHAT HAPPENS NEXT with the Ireland captaincy is of major interest, but Munster boss Graham Rowntree also now has a big call to make in the wake of Peter O’Mahony’s decision to step down as his province’s skipper.
The announcement came as something of a bolt out of the blue yesterday and has led to increased speculation that 34-year-old O’Mahony will take over as Ireland captain following Johnny Sexton’s post-World Cup retirement from rugby.
Perhaps Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has already spoken to O’Mahony but nothing has been confirmed at this stage. It would make sense for the Irish centurion to take on the skipper’s role as Farrell’s men look to bounce back from World Cup disappointment and resume the momentum they had built up before their quarter-final exit against the All Blacks. O’Mahony played a central part in that remarkable run.
The Cork man was named starting Ireland captain for the first time in 2013 when he was still only 23. He has since been the skipper for Six Nations games, summer Tests, autumn internationals, and World Cup warm-up matches. O’Mahony knows the drill and Farrell has huge respect for him, as do his Ireland team-mates.
Johnny Sexton was 34 when Farrell named him Ireland captain so there is recent precedent. And Sexton kept going until the age of 38.
All of that said, the reality is that we don’t know what O’Mahony’s future beyond this season is. His current IRFU central contract ends in the summer of 2024 and contract negotiations often happen at this stage of the year in Irish rugby.
As ever, IRFU performance director David Nucifora will have been considering whether to extend that deal or not. O’Mahony only turned 34 in September and has clearly still been playing at a very high standard, so he will believe he has made his case if he wants to continue.
In the immediate aftermath of the World Cup quarter-final, O’Mahony admitted that he would need to consider his future.
“Will I come back? We’ll see,” said O’Mahony. “It’s a tough one to take as a lot of my friends won’t be back. I have a contract until the end of the year and we’ll see how we go after that.”
It may be that O’Mahony decides to retire at the end of this season but he had just come out of a shattered dressing room when he made these comments. He had just seen Sexton and Keith Earls’ international careers end in dejection.
If O’Mahony is named Ireland captain and indicates that he wants to continue beyond the end of this campaign, he would surely be handed an IRFU contract extension.
But if he plays on and is not made the next Ireland captain, then he could be off his central contract in the summer of 2024. That would mean Munster having to absorb his salary on a provincial deal which would obviously have a big impact on their budget given his stature and quality. Munster would have to consider whether that would be a good investment. And for his part, O’Mahony would have to consider whether such an offer was good enough.
Maybe O’Mahony could captain Ireland this season and then hang up the boots altogether by finishing on that high. Or it could be that he has just had enough of the additional workload that goes with being Munster captain and recognises that the province could benefit from a change of voice.
All we know for certain right now is that O’Mahony’s reign as Munster captain is over. Having taken on the role full-time in 2013, he has given it his all. That he capped it off by lifting the URC trophy last season was thoroughly rewarding for him.
Now his Munster boss, Rowntree, has to confirm who the next Munster captain will be. It helps that O’Mahony will be around to support and guide the new skipper. They’ll be lucky to be able to lean on him.
29-year-old Jack O’Donoghue has regularly captained Munster in O’Mahony’s absence, doing so for the first time in 2018 when he was still only 24. The Waterford man has been a captain for most of the teams he has played with and is highly respected within the Munster squad.
One of the possible issues with O’Donoghue taking over from O’Mahony as the permanent skipper is that he hasn’t been part of their first-choice back row in recent times. With O’Mahony still around and the likes of Gavin Coombes, John Hodnett and Alex Kendellan vying for places, as well as Brian Gleeson and Ruadhán Quinn making progress, the back row is becoming even more competitive.
So who else might Rowntree be considering as the next Munster captain?
Tadhg Beirne has also been skipper in O’Mahony’s absence, although he only did the job for the first time in January 2022. It happened when O’Mahony was ruled out of a game against Ulster during the pre-match warm-up.
Beirne was promoted from the bench and took on the captaincy, doing a fine job as Munster overcame an early red card for Simon Zebo to win 18-13. A characteristic Beirne jackal turnover in the final minute sealed a stirring Munster victory, while he dealt with referee Mike Adamson calmly throughout.
His is obviously not the widest-ranging captaincy CV but Beirne has clearly been a leader for Munster since his arrival in 2018. His momentum-shifting actions have often been integral to their big wins, while he has become their primary lineout caller and taken ownership in leading that area of their game.
It might be that Munster are better off leaving Beirne to do his thing without extra duties to concern him, but he’s a mature, considered individual who is still only 31 and has years of good rugby ahead of him. Like O’Mahony before him, Beirne wouldn’t be available for every Munster game and would be missing for blocks like the Six Nations, but Rowntree could call on lieutenants like O’Donoghue in those cases.
Limerick man Conor Murray has captained Munster before, while he was made Lions captain in South Africa in 2021 when Alun Wyn Jones was ruled out of the tour through injury. Jones ended up making a sensational recovery to return as skipper and Murray only started one of the three Tests.
Murray’s central contract with the IRFU also expires at the end of this season and Nucifora will have been weighing up whether to extend that given that the 34-year-old scrum-half is no longer first-choice for Andy Farrell’s team.
If not, Munster would have to attempt to take Murray’s salary into their budget and with Craig Casey and Paddy Patterson having applied pressure at scrum-half in Munster, Murray’s future is not clear at present either. It’s likely that Murray is considering his options now and will have to decide whether any offers in Ireland are fair.
There have been calls for Munster to go with one of their younger homegrown products to succeed O’Mahony.
Out-half Jack Crowley is now leading the team as the first-choice out-half. He has a confident, level-headed personality but is still relatively new to his role. He also has the small matter of trying to succeed Sexton as Ireland’s first-choice out-half, so being appointed Munster skipper now would leave him with lots on his plate.
His halfback partner, 24-year-old Casey, is about as passionate a Munster man as you could imagine. He lives and breathes the province. Casey is understood to be part of the leadership group in the Munster squad now, so it’s clear that he helps to drive standards. He captained Ireland A against the All Blacks XV last autumn.
Casey is a fiery presence on the pitch and often tests referees with his demands around the breakdown, so being a skipper might take some adjustment, while he has to push past Murray as the first-choice number nine. Murray started the URC final win last season, with Casey on the bench.
25-year-old number eight Gavin Coombes has become a key player in recent years, but the Skibbereen man hasn’t had notable captaincy experience since his school days. He is a big character within the Munster squad and is perhaps best suited to influencing team-mates in a less formal manner, as well as by racking up ridiculous ball-carrying and tackling stats.
There’s also 25-year-old hooker Diarmuid Barron, who captained Munster for the first time earlier this month when O’Mahony, O’Donoghue and Beirne were absent. Coombes, Crowley, and Casey were all in the starting XV but Barron was the skipper.
He captained Rockwell College to the Munster Schools Senior Cup in 2015 at a time when current Munster defence coach Denis Leamy was part of the Rockwell coaching team. Barron has made big progress with Munster in the last two seasons in particular, helping him to catch the eye of Ireland boss Farrell, who brought him into his World Cup pre-season camp when there were injuries at hooker.
Barron pushed past the more experienced Niall Scannell last season as Munster drove to their URC title, but it’s worth pointing out that 31-year-old Scannell has also captained his province a couple of times and is an influential figure within the squad.
Second row Fineen Wycherley recently made his 100th Munster appearance at the age of just 25 and is seen as a leader, while a bigger outside shout would be fellow lock Jean Kleyn, who has been an impressively consistent player for Munster. He is, of course, now a South Africa international having switched allegiance back from Ireland to win the World Cup with the Springboks.
Kleyn is out of contract at the end of this season but there is growing expectation that he will re-sign, despite links to the Top 14. The 30-year-old hasn’t been a captain before but he’s an excellent speaker and top performer.
Whoever takes over will still have O’Mahony’s experience to call on, but there are a couple of big questions to be answered in the wake of yesterday’s announcement.
