Peter O'Mahony expects to face France, coy on contract situation

New Ireland skipper Peter O'Mahony says he expects to be fit for their opening Guinness Six Nations match against France but wouldn’t be drawn on his contract situation.

O'Mahony was taken off in the second half of Munster's Champions Cup loss to Northampton at the weekend with head coach Graham Rowntree saying that he would be assessed for a "couple of little bangs."

France host defending champions Ireland in Marseille on 2 February.

"I haven't had a huge amount of rugby under my belt since the World Cup. The last two weeks will stand to me and I'm certainly planning on being fit," he told RTÉ Sport.

The 34-year-old was named as Ireland skipper last week, taking over from the retired Johnny Sexton.

He stood down as Munster captain in November amid speculation that he won’t be retained on a central IRFU contract when his current deal expires during the summer.

"This is always the time of year that this stuff comes around," said the back row at the tournament launch in Dublin this morning.

"There’s been lots of talk about it the last couple of weeks so I’m looking to leave it at that.

"We have a whole Six Nations kicking off and I’m delighted to be talking about that and park that stuff."

On taking over the captaincy, O’Mahony, who has 101 Ireland caps, said: "I wasn’t expecting it, to be honest.

"A special phone call to get and then you’ve got to go and do your job for the week with Munster. An honour to get the call.

"To get that phone call from Andy [Farrell, head coach] it was such a special thing to be honest.

"It is slightly different to being asked to do it for a full campaign, for a Six Nations, and one of the biggest honours of my career."

After hinting that he would consider retirement following Ireland’s Rugby World Cup