Ireland captain Peter O’Mahony ‘happy’ to pack the ‘whole lot in’ after record win
Peter O'Mahony leading Ireland out against France in the Six Nations in 2024.
Ireland’s Peter O’Mahony admitted that an away victory over France doesn’t ‘get any better’ and that he could happily retire having defeated Les Bleus on Friday.
Thankfully, the new captain is not considering walking away from the game, but was simply acknowledging the scale of his team’s triumph in Marseille.
After thrashing the French 38-17, Andy Farrell’s men have set themselves up nicely for a tilt at another Grand Slam.
Back-to-back?
Ireland won the Six Nations in 2023 and, on the evidence of their performance at the Stade Velodrome, they will be incredibly difficult to stop once again this year.
“I don’t think it gets any better really,” O’Mahony said.
“Away from home, first game up, Friday night, Marseille, the Vélodrome, I’d have been a happy man packing the whole lot in tomorrow morning if you’d given me the chance to take a win.”
That comment led to O’Mahony’s head coach interjecting, with Farrell jokingly asking the flanker: “Are you trying to say something eh? Are you going to pack it all in?”
The captain replied: “No I’m not. No, it has to be right up there. I said inside it’s the biggest margin that we’ve beaten France by.
“I remember as a young fella, watching Irish teams, and you’d be hoping that they’d hang on in there, whereas it’s a different animal now.”
In a game between the two favourites for the 2024 Six Nations, many wondered which side would react best after the disappointment of the Rugby World Cup.
Both sides failed to meet expectations at the global tournament, but there was no hangover from Ireland, who were utterly magnificent.
There were several impressive individual displays, especially from youngsters Joe McCarthy and Jack Crowley, but it was an all-round slick team effort.
And Farrell revealed what pleased him most about their outstanding victory over France.
Composure
“As a team, certainly our composure because it wasn’t all singing all dancing, a French side that’s always going to pose questions and the crowd was always going to get behind them at times, but we managed to silence them quite a lot through good composure with how we played the game,” the head coach said.
“I suppose the main thing for me would have been our ability to just stay on it for the full 80 minutes and keep attacking the game.
“I think when you’re playing against 14 men for a long period, sometimes subconsciously you tend to shut up shop a little bit more.
“I thought our intent was pretty good and we were pretty ruthless when we needed to be, then obviously on top of that I thought our lineout in attack and defence was outstanding.”
