Munster have today announced that flanker Peter O’Mahony will take over from Doug Howlett as Munster captain for the coming season.
The 23 year-old is no stranger to the skipper’s armband having led Ireland on this year’s summer tour of North America, while he has also captained Munster A and Ireland U20s and U18s in the past.
With Doug Howlett taking over from Paul O’Connell last season, O’Mahony follows in some illustrious footsteps, but has been a consistent performer in Munster colours since making his debut in January 2010 against Ulster and is relishing the challenge.
“It is the biggest honour of my career so far and it is very special to me,” O’Mahony told the Munster website.
“When I was asked by Rob initially I was just shocked and my first instinct was to jump at it, but I had time to go away and think about it and I wanted to talk to people to get their thoughts.
“Fellas like Paulie are very important guys in this squad and hopefully he and the other guys will be behind me for the year and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Coach Rob Penney said that it was an easy decision as he was the player’s choice for the role once it became vacant.
“We went through a process last year to appoint Dougie via the players and this year Peter’s name was to the forefront of that list so taking all that information on board it was a no brainer that Pete would be appointed,” he said.
A fitting choice for such an illustrious honour.
