Incredible.
Unbowed, unbent, unbroken.
That attitude could be used to define every single player in a green jersey as Ireland finally registered a win against the All Blacks on Irish soil for the first time in 113 years.
Jacob Stockdale’s superb try proved to be the difference but in a team of heroes, Peter O’Mahony rightfully picked up the man of the match accolade.
“It’s a special group of boys and it’s an honour to play alongside them every time we take to the field. It’s a special day today to play alongside some of my best friends, so, it was a good day,” said O’Mahony in the post-match interview.
In typical self-deprecating fashion, the Munster man wanted to take about the team effort and not focus on his own heroic performance. “It was unreal playing alongside them. Boys showing up everywhere. You know, tackles being made that shouldn’t have been made and everyone fighting for the cause. It was a huge day. We’re building nicely going into the Six Nations and look, it’s a big piece of history for us. It’s one that we’ve wanted to tick off and we’d done that now, so, happy days,” he added.
Having missed out on the win against New Zealand in Chicago (2016), lost the Lions captaincy after Eden Park and then missed the victory in Wellington the following weekend, O’Mahony seemed like he was more determined than ever to beat the All Blacks.
Proof of this came in the period of 55-65 mins when Beauden Barrett’s grubber kick look like it had put through Ben Smith to score the easiest try of his career.
Nobody told O’Mahony though as he scrambled across the field and plucked the ball out of the grasp of two onrushing New Zealand players. Moments later, the man of the match did what he does best, using his ferocious desire and power to win a turnover penalty.
He left to a standing ovation.
7 tackles won. 4 lineout wins. 2 turnovers won.
1 Peter O’Mahony.
A warrior through and through.
As Wayne Barnes blew the final whistle, not even injury was going to stop the Munster man from celebrating.
Great scenes.
O’Mahony forgetting he was injured 😂😂😂 #IREvNZL pic.twitter.com/p2v1aowsea
— Alan Guerin (@alang0486) November 17, 2018
