Peter O’Mahony ready to go

Not only does Peter O’Mahony freely admit that he never had the capacity to play anything other than rugby, listening to him recount his career from its first fledgling steps to now, it’s hard to imagine him ever being remotely interested in doing anything else with his life.

The English pack clear a ruck against Ireland during last year’s Six Nations clash.

O’Mahony began playing mini-rugby at the age of five, thus having three years on the under-8s, when Luke Fitzgerald was a team-mate.

The English pack clear a ruck against Ireland during last year’s Six Nations clash.

Aside from their Con days together, O’Mahony and Zebo were classmates for six years in Pres.

His dad would play in the latter, “about three years after he should have stopped,” reckons O’Mahony, who says the subs babysat him and even taped him up as if he was going to play himself.

Pres, to O’Mahony, was initially a source of frustration because there wasn’t enough rugby.

“I think Bowne Shield [under-16] year was one of the most enjoyable years I’ve had of rugby a competitive game every Wednesday rather than waiting for a Cup game that was coming six months away.” O’Mahony won a Munster Schools Senior Cup medal in his penultimate year with a first win in his time over Christians at Musgrave Park, but not, annoyingly still, in his final year.

There is a new breed of Munster player, epitomised by Zebo, Conor Murray and O’Mahony, yet unlike the former two you’d identify O’Mahony as more in keeping with the older guard.