YOU ALREADY KNOW that Peter O’Mahony won’t want any fuss made over him on a day that will be hugely important for his team.
As Ireland bid to secure a World Cup quarter-final by beating Scotland in Paris this Saturday, the Cork man is set to win his 100th Ireland cap if selected.
The 34-year-old made his Ireland debut against Italy in 2012 and despite some injury troubles in the years since, including a major knee injury at the 2015 World Cup, he is still a key man in Andy Farrell’s squad today.
Ireland scrum-half Conor Murray, a centurion himself, has had a front-row seat for O’Mahony’s career and paid tribute to his Munster team-mate ahead of this weekend.
“I’ve been around Pete since Munster U16s, so I know Peter a very long time,” said Murray at Ireland’s training base in Tours.
“We shared the club journey and the international journey pretty much side by side. We have a lot of the same experiences.
“It’ll be great to get to that milestone and it’s a huge day for himself and his family and everyone that’s worked with him the whole way up. Hopefully, it all goes to plan because it’s a very special club.”
Ireland team manager Mick Kearney, who was with the set-up when O’Mahony made his Test debut, also paid tribute to him as he gets set to join Brian O’Driscoll, Ronan O’Gara, Cian Healy, Rory Best, Johnny Sexton, Murray, Paul O’Connell, John Hayes, and Keith Earls as Ireland centurions.
“I’ve obviously seen a lot of him, I’ve worked with him a long time,” said Kearney.
“He was always a leader, he captained the U20s team before that.
“His leadership qualities developed incredibly well, he was captain of the first Test team for the 2017 Lions and that shows the esteem he’s held in internationally, not just in our team.
“He’s quietly spoken, Peter, but he has a great knack of saying the right thing. He leads by his actions, he’s brought an incredible dynamic to the team environment, and has been a really important leader over a very long period of time.
“If he does get his 100th cap next Saturday it will be incredibly well deserved.”
Ireland’s assistant strength & conditioning coach, Ciaran Ruddock, is another man who played with O’Mahony.
Former Leinster back row Ruddock was part of part of Ireland underage squads with O’Mahony and now works with him in the Irish set-up.
“If selected that would be amazing for Peter,” said Ruddock.
“He’s an incredible leader, he’s a great bloke and he’s worked incredibly hard over his whole career to be where he is.
“He deserves every bit of it. I remember playing with him for the first time and I was incredibly impressed with him, some of the things he could do, some of those one-handed lineout takes.
“At that time he wasn’t, I don’t know what he weighed, but he didn’t weigh nearly what he weighs now. He was 18 years of age and I couldn’t get over what a punch he packed for a guy his size.
“It would be incredible to see if he does do it and he deserves all the success he’s got to this point.”