Ireland’s ‘Haggard Badger’ hopes for ‘bigger moments’ at Rugby World Cup despite milestone
Ireland's Johnny Sexton and Peter O'Mahony during the Rugby World Cup match against the Springboks.
Ireland flanker Peter O’Mahony has a new nickname in camp, but despite hitting another milestone, he is still eager to kick on.
The 34-year-old will become the 10th Irishman to reach 100 Test caps for his country after notching his Test century against South Africa, with one cap for the British & Irish Lions.
He has been named in the starting XV for Ireland’s Pool B finale against Scotland on Saturday. He follows John Hayes, Brian O’Driscoll, Ronan O’Gara, Paul O’Connell, Rory Best, Cian Healy, Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray and Keith Earls in playing 100 Tests for Ireland.
The Haggard Badger
Ahead of the milestone, O’Mahony’s team-mate Iain Henderson revealed the unflattering nickname his Munster clubmate Dave Kilcoyne has given him.
“The Haggard Badger, I think he’s been coined,” Henderson said. “I’m not 100 per cent sure where that came from.”
Scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park confirmed Kilcoyne was responsible with Henderson, adding: “Pete’s a massive leader for our group.
“Not only in terms of rugby but in terms of what we stand for as players, the social side of things, how well knitted together we are, he’s a massive part of that.
“Obviously, I’m sure a lot of the cliches will come out now, but Peter rings true to most of them. He’s deserving of every minute of the jerseys he’s played in and, to this day, still nailing that down.
“You can see in Faz’s (Andy Farrell’s) selections and how highly Faz speaks of him. I think that all rings true to the type of person he is. And long may that continue.”
Bigger moments
As for the man himself, O’Mahony has a degree of embarrassment at joining Ireland’s “hugely inspirational” list but hopes that even greater moments await him in the near future.
“I’m still kind of surprised,” the flanker said ahead of the milestone.
“It’s almost a little bit embarrassing with the names that are ahead of me, to be honest, people I grew up following and supporting, hugely inspirational characters.
“To be the 10th, it’s going to take some time to settle in. It’s nothing I ever expected or dreamed of. We all talk about having dreams, but that one was way off the radar. I’m just trying to prepare as if it’s another Test match.
“I’m hoping there are going to be bigger moments in my career than this one – and hopefully in the near future.”
Ireland face Scotland at the Stade de France in Paris and will remain in France’s capital if they progress in the World Cup.
O’Mahony says that the ultimate goal remains the same and is wary of suffering an early elimination.
“It’s our be-all and end-all, and I’m not going to say that lightly,” he said of winning the tournament.
“Every team that makes this competition is in this country to win it, and we’re no different and certainly, people talking about us not being able to get past certain hurdles, this is the biggest hurdle of our tournament so far, and that’s the way we’re considering it.
“We’ve had some good performances, but we’re considering Scotland as the team they are: an incredible threat to our campaign and our journey.”
Remembering Axel
For O’Mahony, visits to Paris are bittersweet after former Munster head coach Anthony ‘Axel’ Foley died in his sleep at a hotel in the city in October 2016.
“Myself and Johnny (Sexton) had a conversation about it,” O’Mahony said.
“I think it was on the way to the South African game, actually, about sometimes it is weird to be in Paris and to think about Axel and what happened.
“It certainly is an incredibly sad memory, particularly for that Munster team who were in Paris that week.
“I’m not going to go into it now, but Johnny made a couple of lovely gestures to the family afterwards but Axel is always somebody who is certainly in my head on a very regular basis, and when you come to Paris, he certainly comes to mind.
“I have the fondest memories that we had together and the amount of inspiration he gave, not to just to me, but to lots of young kids in Munster and Ireland.”
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