Who’s the tall teenager with the Beatles haircut and the tracer-like pass?
Standing on the sideline, there was a gale blowing off the estuary that swept across the upper pitch at Malahide RFC. Ireland hosted Italy in an Under-19 international on Saturday, March 22nd, 2008.
I was struck by the quality and poise of the Irish scrumhalf, Conor Murray, and his captain that day, Peter O’Mahony, a rampaging, bristling dervish happy to confront all-comers in blue.
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At the Aviva Stadium this weekend, they will play their final home Test match for Ireland, joined by Cian Healy who like his team-mates will sign off on their international careers at the end of the Six Nations against Italy in Rome, three outstanding players and servants to their provinces and country. Four people who knew them well offer an insight.
Ian McKinley
The Dublin-born, former Italian international played alongside Murray and O’Mahony in that game in Malahide and also at Under-20 level for Ireland, counting them as cherished team-mates and provincial rivals on the occasion of Leinster versus Munster duels.
The first time I encountered Pete was in a Munster versus Leinster U-19 Schools game at Donnybrook. He was number eight and captain of Munster. My dad is from Tipp, so we would have that healthy rivalry, half the household is Leinster the other half Munster.
My dad being an ex-hooker loved Munster forwards and just saw that this lad had that sort of steely Munster look and determination about him. Pete has gone on to write his own history.
Playing with them at Ireland U-19 and U-20s, I got to know them well. I roomed with Conor during the Junior World Cup so I would have gotten to know him a little bit through that. Conor keeps a room tidy. I’ve never come across any roommates since that has kept a room so tidy and everything so precise. I felt like a dirty animal beside Conor.
He was extremely calm, that stands out first and foremost, the basics of the game were really good; the accuracy of his passing, his box kicking was second to none, and defence. He gave you reassurances playing outside him.
Pete, you’d run through a brick wall for the man. He knew what to say, what to do and the most important thing led from the front. We would all have put a mortgage that Pete would not only have been a captain of Ireland but for the Lions. He led from the front and would not take a step back. Brilliant players and team-mates, both.
Michael Kearney
Former Ireland team manager
I have obviously known them since 2012, seen them develop, grow-up and mature into adults and all three fathers at this stage. There is a great presence about Peter. He commands attention when he speaks, commands a room when he comes into it, his personality much the same as he presents but at the same time [he] would have a very droll , good sense of humour, very good fun on a night out.
He’s tough, very uncompromising but very loyal, a fantastic team-mate: I can talk about the three of them very much in the same light when I mentioned those traits.
They have that fantastic ability just to fit in, fit into the team environment, never put their heads above the parapet and cause trouble, or look for extra things or complain, none of that from any of them. All the compliments that have been paid to them over the past week are well deserved.
During my time I got to know them well. You almost wouldn’t notice them if you know what I mean, they are understated personality wise, they don’t really put themselves out there, they are not the people that would be leading the charge on a night out. They’d fit in seamlessly, would be a very good description of the three of them.
Conor has been extraordinary in terms of his contribution. I was just thinking about it, trying to remember Conor making a mistake; it’s quite hard, it’s difficult to pinpoint whether it’s a knock on, a drop ball, or a poor kick. He is just unflappable really on and off the pitch. He brings a fantastic sense of calm to everyone around him.
Cian, if I was to think of one word, it would be, ‘hard’. He is resilient, never complains, gets on with his work, a brilliant team-mate, very helpful to others around him. But again understated. It’s extraordinary the similarities between the three players in terms of their personalities.
They are three genuinely good people. I couldn’t pick three better people in my time. I got Kevin Moran and Liam Brady in for a chat with the Ireland squad during the week. I asked Kevin a question: if he was a rugby player on the Irish team who would be?
He answered: ‘It would probably be Peter O’Mahony;’ tough, gnarly, angry, uncompromising, put your head where others wouldn’t type of player. It got a great laugh from the lads.
Ian Keatley
School-mate and team-mate of Cian Healy on a Belvedere College side that won a Leinster Schools Senior Cup, they were on the Ireland Under-20 team that won a Grand Slam (2007) and joined the Leinster academy together. He played alongside Peter O’Mahony and Conor Murray for Munster and Ireland
Cian has always been very determined, confident in his own ability and never had any fear growing up. He used to rollerblade, used to be able to do flips on the roller blades, which for the size of him he shouldn’t have been able to do.
He loved art. He loved rollerblading, he loved DJing; whatever he did he threw himself in 100 per cent to get better at it. He didn’t do anything half-arsed, backed himself, like in his rugby career. In the [Leinster] Academy he’d rack up PB’s, breaking his own little records in the gym.
If he got an injury, he’d research it and find out different ways how we could get better. Even now he has recovery stations, like ice baths in his back garden. He just looked after his body so well. It’s unbelievable what he’s done.
He’s so humble, real down to earth. He is coaching down in Clontarf, trying to upskill as a coach. He helps the Irish [U]20s players with their technique. He’s a really great guy and it’s incredible that he’s Ireland’s most capped international as he’s playing in one of the most attritional positions.
The first year I went to Munster was Conor Murray’s breakthrough year and then he broke through to the Ireland team. He’s a really, humble guy, very easy to talk to, very laid back, chilled, reserved, still good fun but a cool customer. You can see that whenever he plays.
He never gets rattled, even if he makes a mistake. He has this unbelievable ability to park it. I couldn’t believe how talented he was, his box-kicks, his passing, his defensive skills. For a long time, Conor was the pinnacle, one of the world’s best, three Lions tours and captained them too.
Pete is one of the easiest people to read. What I like about Pete is his personality comes out on the pitch. That’s the way he is. He’s just such a determined guy, aggressive on the pitch, and even in training, he trains the way he plays, with that edge.
He never shied away from his personality. Rassie [Erasmus] used to say, ‘don’t try to be anyone else, be your personality’. Pete certainly did that while being supportive.
He grew into the Munster captaincy after taking a year to figure it out and became an unbelievable leader, by setting an example of how to be on the pitch and off and in training. If someone didn’t do something right, he made sure he corrected them.
He led by example, a vocal leader and an unbelievable captain but would still have the craic. The three boys have had unbelievable careers and hopefully they get a good send off in their last home game at the Aviva.
Patrick ‘Rala’ O’Reilly
Former bagman ‘pastoral counsellor’ to Ireland and Lions teams amongst others.
“Ah, the three bunnies, I have nothing but fond memories of the way they looked after me, as much as I looked after them, and literally on one occasion in the case of Peter O’Mahony in the old Intercontinental Hotel in Ballsbridge.
I had a medical mishap, bit dehydrated, and collapsed. I remember coming to with Peter standing over me, going ‘Rala, Rala are you okay?’ He nearly volunteered to come to the hospital with me, such was his concern. Peter was first on the scene. I was shipped off to the hospital for three days.
This was the same stay in which I went up to my room to be greeted by no furniture at all. The players had removed everything, bed, dresser, tables, lampshades, every stick and all my belongings. They left just the carpet and the door. Another time they took the door too. I’d say Peter would be handy with a screwdriver.
I’ve so many memories of the three boys, some of them messy, like when they’d kick the lovely, clean, folded laundry up and down the corridor in Carton House. It used to come back in neat parcels, they, amongst other culprits, would collect their gear, and then kick the rest of it down the corridor.
Cian took me off-roading once, in a great big 4x4 jeep at Carton House. I went to find some wellies, but he said, ‘Rala you won’t need those’. A wheel fell off during our adventure and I had to trudge through knee deep sludge back to the hotel in brand new runners. He is one of the players that has come with me to my spiritual home, Inishbofin.
Watching them play an international on television I’ll chuckle occasionally when one of their faces appears on screen because a story will pop into my head. They deserve every accolade; they made my life brighter with their friendship and I wish everything for them over the next couple of weekends.
