Ireland’s fiery Peter O’Mahony can bring physical edge to England clash

Peter O’Mahony says he has ‘emotional scars’ from Ireland’s defeats at Twickenham but is determined not to add more. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho/Shutterstock

Last December, UL Bohemians rugby club asked Peter O’Mahony to record a short good luck message for their under-15s team ahead of their big final against Garryowen. You may have heard that O’Mahony ended up making two videos, the one he was asked for, and then another for the opposition apologising for calling them “fuckers” who he had “never liked” after the first video was leaked online . At 32, and after a decade of hard graft for Ireland, the Lions and Munster, a round of shoulder surgery, some bad knee, ankle and rib injuries, O’Mahony’s body may be beginning to slow down, but he’s clearly lost none of his edge.

You could hear it when he was talking to the press on Thursday, after Andy Farrell had named him in the starting XV to play England at Twickenham.