"I don't know why we would be panicking," says Peter O'Mahony. That was just over a year ago when Ireland suffered a chastening 20-32 loss to England, their first Six Nations home defeat under Joe Schmidt.
O’Mahony hasn’t moved from the chill position. Then, with the World Cup looming, there was more hope than evidence that Ireland would fire on the bigger stage. We know how that went. A year on with Andy Farrell in charge and already there have been calls for wholesale change.
Many of the verbal missiles have come from the growing industry of former players popping up in the mainstream and social media, some of whom O’Mahony would have played alongside. But the backrow has little truck with his friends turned critics.
“I don’t, with no disrespect, engage with it,” he says. “Probably the main reason I don’t engage with it is because I like to keep friendships with guys. I know they need to do their thing so I genuinely don’t engage with it.
“We are by far our sternest critics and I don’t need another group outside that to listen to as well. We’ll go through it with a finetooth comb and be the most serious critics of ourselves, as a group, pack, back line. There is no-one harder on us than ourselves. Outside of that it doesn’t really bother me.”
O’Mahony concedes that he has built a wall around his career and private life and after such beatings by England, the chill winds can be difficult. And now the possibility of a redemption march is looking less likely in a truncated season with Italy off and the final match against France blowing in the wind.
Final shot
England might have been Ireland’s final shot at this Six Nations. The “safe place” O’Mahony talks about in Sports Campus Ireland with the rest of the squad may soon break camp if the coronavirus invasion continues.
On that, unlike Newcastle Football Club, whose players and staff have been told to stop shake hands, Ireland have no specific protocols in place other than diligent hand washing.
O’Mahony has weathered storms before. He points to fickleness, how not so long ago Conor Murray was proclaimed by the same people who now deride him to be the best scrumhalf in the world. For his own preservation he has learned to compartmentalise his rugby and his private life, which is less of a lifestyle choice than an essential commodity as a professional player.
“The closest people to you aren’t warped enough to think that you are always great, which is why they are close to you and why they are around you,” he says. “The people around me would know not to bring up stuff that is outside our little circle.
“That’s part of how I approach rugby. There is a huge amount to worry about in rugby for me and those opinions aren’t something I like to draw on myself. There are players who do it and it cuts them. It’s tough for some guys to listen to. So I just don’t engage with it.”
The 30-year-old is not unaware of the backrow challenges with Leinster particularly mainlining a stream of talent into the system. Both Caelen Doris and Max Deegan have already sung their debut songs this year. Dan Leavy will return, so too Jack Conan, while Will Connors was part of Farrell’s initial 45-man squad.
No flinching
Today, speaking as a brand ambassador for Dove Men+Care, O’Mahony sits in front of the number six jersey hanging in the wall in Aviva Stadium. Despite being overlooked by Farrell at the beginning of the campaign, there is no flinching.
“The Irish backrows have always been competitive,” he says of the surging environment. “Look at the guys who are injured at the moment, Dan Leavy, Jack Conan and these guys to still to come back, guys like Jack O’Donoghue who’s really in form. Josh, CJ all these guys, Max, Caelan...”
And all are a direct threat to holding on to the green shirt on the wall.
“Of course. Yeah, there is a probably a good few of them are better at things than I’m at,” he says. “They can do stuff better that I can do. But I’ll always back my strengths and I know I’ll always add to a team.
“You know when you drop the ball in an Ireland jersey...there are too many good guys there for you to stay on. It’s going to happen us all at some stage, that I won’t be needed. But you’ll do your utmost to hang on in there, to do your best for Ireland as long as you can.”
Eight years an international player, O’Mahony is not going anywhere and he’s also ‘not just hanging in.’
“Not at all,” he says, eyes wide open. No panic.
