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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Michael Scully

Munster captain Peter O'Mahony hails the Reds' "unbelievable balls" to claim URC title victory

Peter O'Mahony said it took "unbelievable balls" for Munster to get over the line to claim the BKT URC trophy in Cape Town.

The Munster skipper admitted it was still in dreamland as he tried to come to terms with winning the first silverware of his career.

The 33-year-old Ireland star lifted the trophy with his fellow veteran Keith Earls.

But while Earls came off the bench to play his part in a dramatic final quarter in the 19-14 triumph over the Stormers, O'Mahony was forced out of the action after 34 minutes.

READ MORE: Munster claim Stormers scalp to win URC Grand Final - and first silverware since 2011

“I’m all right, I’m still in one piece," said the Corkman. "I got a bang in the neck after about 10 minutes but I’ll be all right. I’ll battle on.

“I can’t really believe it, to be honest with you. I’ve been a long time waiting for it and yeah, I can’t believe it. Happy days.”

Remarkably, Munster bounced back from their last 16 Champions Cup defeat at the Sharks to record four victories and a draw on the road, with two of those wins - and the draw - coming in South Africa.

“We’ve been on the road a lot and I think it stood to us. We’ve worked hard and we’ve ground out serious, serious victories," said O'Mahony.

“Even the Sharks away from home that we drew...I think they stood to us today. Unbelievable balls in the second half to put in that performance.”

Man of the match John Hodnett, who scored the vital 75th minute try that tilted the contest back in Munster's favour, agreed with O'Mahony's assessment.

"We've been on the road I don't know how many weeks now, we've travelled some crazy miles, so it's great," said the flanker.

"Battle-hardened, that's exactly what we're talking about. We stuck in until the very end. That was the difference.

"We had a couple of weeks off (after losing in the Champions Cup), but I think we just turned it around when we came down here - the win against the Stormers turned our season around and we just built momentum.

"It's not just the 23 here, it's everyone at home. The way we trained all year, it's a group effort really, it's unbelievable to win."

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