Ireland’s fiery Peter O’Mahony can bring physical edge to England clash

Last December, UL Bohemians rugby club asked Peter O’Mahony to record a short good luck message for their under-15s team ahead of their big final against Garryowen. You may have heard that O’Mahony ended up making two videos, the one he was asked for, and then another for the opposition apologising for calling them “fuckers” who he had “never liked” after the first video was leaked online . At 32, and after a decade of hard graft for Ireland, the Lions and Munster, a round of shoulder surgery, some bad knee, ankle and rib injuries, O’Mahony’s body may be beginning to slow down, but he’s clearly lost none of his edge.

You could hear it when he was talking to the press on Thursday, after Andy Farrell had named him in the starting XV to play England at Twickenham.

“Every game is hugely important but country is different to club and there’s no point saying otherwise,” O’Mahony said. “Every game brings massive nerves for me still, 24 hours out, I’m physically ill with what’s coming up; the battle, the wanting to play well, the not wanting to let anybody down. Regardless of who the opposition is, that doesn’t change.”

O’Mahony only tends to start every other game for Ireland these days. He’s been on the bench for a lot of the big ones, against the All Blacks last autumn, and Wales and France earlier in this tournament. “We’re going to play a physical game they’re not used to,” said Eddie Jones, who must have missed their match against France in Paris a fortnight ago.

“Obviously O’Mahony’s pretty good in that area. He’s a guy they tend to pick against us. He doesn’t tend to start against too many other countries but England, and he’s a good man for the job, and we’ve got to be good enough to outmatch him.” He has what Liam