PETER O’MAHONY BOARDED a flight to London this morning at 7am alongside his Munster team-mates Conor Murray and CJ Stander.
While the three of them would naturally have been excited to be flying out to join Warren Gatland’s Lions squad before their departure to New Zealand tomorrow, the Munster men would have had a heaviness in their step.
Their focus will switch almost immediately to the task in front of them on tour with the Lions as they look to make up for lost time, but the nature of Munster’s defeat in the Guinness Pro12 final yesterday will flicker into their minds throughout the day.
“This will hurt for a few hours and I have to bite the bullet and I think I’ve a flight at 7 o’clock in the morning to London and out the gap,” said captain O’Mahony last night after Munster’s 46-22 loss to the Scarlets.
“Obviously, I’m hugely honoured and I suppose it was at the back of my mind if you can do that for such a big occasion for the last few weeks, because my mind was here with Munster.
“But the fact that you’re getting on a flight now with the Lions is a huge honour and I’m really looking forward to the challenge.”
O’Mahony got another close-up demonstration of the quality of fellow Lions Jonathan Davies and Liam Williams at the Aviva Stadium yesterday, with that pair part of an astonishing collective display by Wayne Pivac’s side.
The Welsh region scored four tries in 22 first-half minutes, a spell of the game where Munster seemed totally out on their feet after taking an early lead through Tyler Bleyendaal’s penalty.
“It felt like every time we got the ball we gave it away and every time we gave it away, they scored a try,” said O’Mahony. “It was very hard to stop.
“Their biggest asset is their counter-attack and if we’re going to throw ball at them the way we did, you see how good they are and how clinically they can finish, so it’s very difficult to play against them if you cough up ball the way we did.”
The Scarlets’ victory was all the more disappointing for Munster given that they achieved it in exactly the same manner as they dismantled Leinster, Ospreys and Connacht in recent weeks.
Though Munster had pinpointed the Scarlets’ width, counter-attacking class, handling precision and pace during the build-up, they simply couldn’t shut it down.
“We definitely saw their attacking coming, how good it was over the last few weeks, how good it was against Leinster, and how dangerous they can be from broken play,” said O’Mahony. “That makes it hurt a little more.”
Though Munster leaked two further tries late in the game and continued to miss tackles against the dangerous Welsh region, O’Mahony stressed that there had been no lack of effort from his side.
While they clearly have major tactical and technical growth ahead of them this summer, O’Mahony is encouraged by what he saw as his side’s fighting attitude.
“When you’re chasing a lead like that you have to go out and play rugby,” said O’Mahony.
“When it gets to 60 or 65 minutes and you’re 20-odd points down you’ve got to throw your plan out the window a little bit and it’s no big surprise to people that we don’t play in our own 22 up to our 10-metre line or whatever we do.
“When you’re firing balls out the back like that, you’re going to concede a couple of tries, because that’s not the way we train. Any team that’s chasing a lead is open to a couple of intercepts or getting a pass behind you.
“I wouldn’t accept for one second that there wasn’t effort or there wasn’t guys trying out there.”
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