Munster

captain

Peter O'Mahony

says he hopes to bring the “long and slow” process of contract negotiations to a close as soon as possible, but he remained steadfast that Munster remains his first choice destination for next season.

O’Mahony signed his first professional deal with Munster in 2011 and penned a two year IRFU contract in 2013, which is due to expire this summer.

The 25-year-old flanker is expected to remain with his home province, but when asked if Europe’s big money clubs could test his loyalty to the red shirt, he refused to go into any details.

Private business

“That’s private business at the moment. I’m not discussing it at a table like this. I’m hoping to get it done as fast as possible,” said the Cork native. “I’m getting there. It’s a long process. It’s long and slow but we’ll see how it goes.”

Just like his head coach Anthony Foley, O'Mahony does not regard money as being a stumbling block for the development of the game in the province. Already the Top14 has seen some of the southern hemisphere's elite players sign deals to move after the World Cup, but the skipper thinks Munster should focus on keeping talent coming through their academy.

“I think Munster have competed with them (rich clubs) for years. Munster has never been flowing with money. We’ve always relied on our academy, we’ve always relied on the players coming through having a passion to play for Munster.

“Munster is a team that drews in players because of what we do and I think we have to stay at it, to stick at it. We’ve had a good look at ourselves and we need to stay on it.

“It’s there, we know it’s there. We have a good squad and there’s good young fellas coming through. There’s good guys there at the moment and we’ve just got to keep plugging away,” said O’Mahony, who will win his 68th Munster cap, if selected, on Sunday against Sale.

Pride

A home defeat against Clermont and away losses to the French side and last weekend in Saracens means Sunday’s clash means nothing. Pride is all Munster have to play for this weekend.

O’Mahony is still struggling to pick through the embers of last weekend, he says, but thinks it is vital that they perform well this weekend, if only to give the squad a boost with the impending departure of their international contingent.

“We set goals at the start of the year that we want more people playing international rugby. If we do that, then our standards will come up when guys come back.

“I’d have huge confidence in the guys understanding how big a block it is for us. There’s four games while the internationals are going on and how important they are for us.

“We’ll have to be good over the next block with the internationals away. It’s a very important block for us. Now the Guinness Pro12 becomes massive for us,” he said.