Peter O’Mahony says there are important lessons to be learned from last season

Munster captain Peter O’Mahony made his first start of the season last weekend in the bonus point win over Cardiff Blues at Thomond Park.

Having suffered their first Pro14 defeat of the season the week prior, Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus thought it wise to call upon his returning Lions, as O’Mahony, Conor Murray and CJ Stander all stepped back into the starting XV.

Last season was an emotional one for the Munster skipper, which saw his head coach and mentor Anthony Foley pass away. That was to be followed by a Champions Cup semi-final appearance and a Pro12 final showdown with Scarlets.

The Cork man ended the season in the red of the British and Irish Lions, where he had the honour of captaining the side for their opening test against New Zealand.

O’Mahony tells Simon Lewis of the Irish Examiner that he has tried to take what he can from last year’s experiences.

We’d a lot of experiences last year, you know, with Axel and the European side of it. Things that shouldn’t happen or things you shouldn’t have to deal with that we did have to deal with. Then there were semi-finals of both competitions along with a final. I personally had a tour at the end of it. You’ve got to take from all of those experiences and hopefully, I can bank them.”

Munster are now in the process of appointing a successor to departing Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus, O’Mahony says that he and his teammates aren’t distracted by the situation.

“If you came into a meeting this time last year and then came into a meeting this morning, you wouldn’t know from a background point of view or a players’ point of view that there’s anything happening. It’s a professional sport, these things are going to happen and a lot of the players who are there now, they’ve been through this before, so all we can do is put our heads down and train hard and listen to the feedback.

“Change happens and the new guy is going to come in and do his thing we’re all going to row in behind that.”

The Thomond Park outfit exceeded expectations last season in what they achieved, however O’Mahony says Munster need to learn from defeats in the big games last season.

“We got lessons from some of the bigger teams in Europe. We got a good lesson from Saracens [in the Champions Cup semi-final] and a good lesson from Llanelli [Scarlets] at the end of the season [in the PRO12 final]. They’re lessons we have to take if we want to move forward as a club, if we want to move forward as a club that wants to compete for higher honours.”

Link to original article below.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/sport/peter-omahony-learns-from-lions-role-808427.html