Peter O’Mahony became the tenth Irish Rugby player to reach 100 caps for his country during Ireland’s 36-14 win over Scotland last weekend. Sports Editor Oisin Gaffey comments on this achievement.
As Ireland thrashed Scotland 36-14 in the Stade de France last weekend, Munster’s Peter O’Mahony became just the tenth Irish player to reach 100 caps for his country, doing so in emphatic fashion as his side dismantled their Six Nations rivals, leading 36-0 at one stage.
In fitting fashion for his 100th appearance, O’Mahony found himself at the centre of a feisty exchange with several Scottish players at the start of the second half after a brawl exploded following Ollie Smith’s trip on Irish Captain Johnny Sexton. Photos of the incident show the Munster legend winking at Scottish fly-half Finn Russell, with the scoreboard reading 31-0 to Ireland at that stage.
During the build-up to the game, several Scottish players made comments that would come back to haunt them as they backed themselves to score a shock upset to the highest-ranked team in the world. In a press conference before the game, full-back Blair Kinghorn said: "They have been on a good run of form recently, but we'll end that on Saturday."
After Ireland’s dominant win last Saturday, Peter O’Mahony had a few words to say about Scotland’s comments in the media, “They were in the press beforehand saying they were going to knock us off our winning streak and how they had figured us out and worked us out”, he pauses before delivering the killer blow, “I don’t think they did tonight.” This was typical Peter O’Mahony.
'They were in the press beforehand saying they would knock us off our winning streak and how they had figured us out and worked us out. I don’t think they did tonight.'
To mark the special occasion of Peter O’Mahony’s 100th appearance, Ireland head coach Andy Farrell tried to bring the flanker’s family into camp, with his mother presenting him with his special jersey. Similarly, his wife Jessica and children Indie, Theo and Ralph were all in Paris to offer support. Tributes to O’Mahony were led by his Irish teammates Johnny Sexton and Dave Kilcoyne, with several others quick to offer their praise.
At 34, the flanker seems to be playing the best rugby of his career, but how did he rise to the top of Irish rugby?
O’Mahony was born in Cork in 1989 and played rugby at Presentation Brothers College. From there, he would join the Munster Academy in 2008 before being appointed captain of the Ireland Under 20 side in the 2009 U20 Six Nations. He debuted for the Munster Senior Team in January 2010, playing away to Irish rivals Ulster. O’Mahony’s first start for the province came in a historic 15-6 victory against a visiting Australian side in Thomond Park. From there, the rest is history, as Peter O’Mahony now has an eye-watering 177 caps for Munster, including most recently, their win against The Stormers in the 2023 URC Final.
O’Mahony’s Ireland career began during the 2012 Six Nations, as he was brought on as a substitute against Italy. During his first year on the International scene, he played in the Summer Series away in New Zealand and in Autumn Tests against South Africa and Argentina.
Fast forward 11 years, and Peter O’Mahony has now won four Six Nations Titles, two Grand Slams and Summer Series wins over the All Blacks and Australia, to name a few.
Peter O’Mahony has now won four Six Nations Titles, two Grand Slams and a Summer Series win over the All Blacks and Australia.
Will Pete inspire Ireland to their first-ever World Cup? We can only hope!