IF YOU LOOK through the photographs from Munster’s last trophy win in 2011, you’ll eventually spot Peter O’Mahony, but it takes a bit of work.
O’Mahony, just 21 at the time, can be seen hovering in the background as the likes of Paul O’Connell and Peter Stringer take centre stage.
At the time, O’Mahony was a peripheral, albeit highly-rated, figure in the squad. The 2010/11 campaign was his first full season with Munster but he only played a handful of games, with 20 minutes off the bench against Cardiff his sole run out post-Christmas.
Starting out in a team packed with Munster legends, the Corkman could hardly have envisioned that over 10 years down the line, and across numerous iterations of the competition, that Magners League success would remain the last trophy added to Munster’s cabinet.
O’Mahony would be included in any list of Munster’s greatest players but his career has coincided with a changing of the guard in Irish rugby. Munster’s 2011 Magners League win came the same year Leinster landed their second Champions Cup. Leinster have since added three more European titles [two Champions Cups and one Challenge Cup] and six leagues as Munster have endured an extended silverware drought.
O’Mahony has made it clear that failing to win a title with his home province would be one of the great regrets of his career.
“I was in the extended squad a few years ago when we won it and I’ve never been in a Munster jersey that’s won a trophy,” O’Mahony said in 2017. “It’s a huge goal of mine.”
Now 33, with each passing season that fear has inched closer towards becoming reality. Today he gets another opportunity to finally tick that box.
The strange thing is that a Munster win against the Stormers would mark one of the most unlikely title wins in recent memory. Expectations were unusually low at the beginning of the season as Graham Rowntree and his new-look coaching team undertook a challenging rebuilding project – it’s not that long since there were serious concerns about Munster missing out on Champions Cup rugby next season.
However their late-season surge to today’s URC final in Cape Town has been remarkable to watch, and O’Mahony has been a central figure throughout.
The backrower has started Munster’s last five games on the bounce – a heavy workload on the back of Ireland’s Grand Slam success – and his leadership during that pivotal point of the season was commended by Rowntree following the URC semi-final win against Leinster.
“He spoke emotionally after the (Leinster) game about what it means to him,” Rowntree said.
“You can see what it means to him, the way he conducts himself. He has led this group exceptionally in the last month. He came back from the Six Nations and didn’t have a break, he was straight down to the sauna in Durban with us and he’s pulling the group along with his performances. He’s a warrior, is Pete.”
If Munster do get over the line at the DHL Stadium, it will have felt a long time coming for O’Mahony. He was on the pitch for the league final defeats of 2021 and 2017, but missed the 2015 loss to Glasgow with injury. He’s also seen Munster crash in the semi-finals stages on five occasions. The record in Europe doesn’t read any kinder – exiting the Champions Cup in semi-finals five times and the quarter-finals twice.
There would have been times this season, when Munster were struggling for form in the early days of Rowntree’s reign, where a shot at silverware might have felt as far away as ever.
It has been a season of transition as Rowntree and his all-new coaching team looked to put their own stamp on things. Training has become faster, the gameplan is now more ambitious and the team has been shaken up – at different stages across the year, senior players such as Conor Murray, Joey Carbery and Keith Earls have been dropped for key fixtures. It is testament to O’Mahony’s continued high levels of performance that he has remained central to Rowntree’s plans, the senior figure in a young back row alongside Gavin Coombes (25) and John Hodnett (24).
While his Munster place has never looked under threat, the increased competition at international level certainly seems to have lit a fuse. Think back to the early days of Andy Farrell’s Ireland reign, and O’Mahony was becoming oddly accustomed to starting games on the bench. During Farrell’s first Six Nations (2020), he was left out of the starting XV for three of Ireland’s five fixtures. It wasn’t until last year’s summer tour to New Zealand that he nailed down the six jersey again – Farrell previously tending to opt for a back row of Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier and Jack Conan.
He pushed his way back up the pecking order in traditional O’Mahony style, delivering big performances on the biggest days – his huge defensive contributions for Munster against Exeter and Toulouse last season being the two prime examples before his outstanding displays in New Zealand.
He’s built on that impressive form again this season and remains as influential and important as ever. O’Mahony has played 16 times for Munster this season, clocking up 1,016 minutes – his highest tally since 2018/19. Today’s clash in Cape Town will be his 12th URC outing of the season – marking the most league appearances he’s made since the 2016/17 season.
He captains a side who have made this final against the odds and ahead of schedule – an unusual situation for a Munster team who tend to be judged against the achievements of that great team of the late 2000s.
To have made it to this stage is an achievement in itself but O’Mahony will know that failing to finish the job will represent a major missed opportunity. The league has benefited greatly from the addition of the South African sides and while Munster look well placed to kick on in the coming years, so do many of their URC rivals and this competition will only become more difficult to win – particularly if Munster can continue to compete in the latter end of the Champions Cup knockout rounds.
Trophies won’t define O’Mahony’s legacy at Thomond Park, but to see the Munster captain lift the URC trophy in Cape Town would feel like fitting reward for one of the greatest players the province has ever produced.
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