Former Irish and Munster captain Peter O’Mahony has not ruled out turning to coaching but says all he wants to do when his playing days end in the coming weeks is take a break and spend some time with his family.
The 35-year-old said he is comfortable with his decision to bring the curtain on first his international career and then his playing days with Munster and his primary focus is to finish on a high after shaking off a hamstring injury which him miss the 26-21 loss away to Cardiff last time out which leaves them just outside the knockout places with two games to go.
Both games are at home, starting with Ulster in Thomond Park this Friday and then hosting Benetton the following weekend in Cork, a run-in that could allow the likes of O’Mahony and prop Stephen Archer sign off with a game at their headquarters and then one in their native city.
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A push on from there through the knockout stages and silverware would provide the fitting conclusion to the duo, along with the departing Conor Murray, but O’Mahony has seen enough players go out the door to know that very few sign off in a blaze of glory.
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“That sounds great, but there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge before that,” said O’Mahony. “Yeah, certainly, we have our last fixture in Cork next week, pending fitness. Hopefully, I can have some sort of involvement there, that’d be lovely. But the focus has to be on this week for us with the way the table has gone.
“We’re expecting a big physical derby. You know, Ulster coming down here, it’s always a spicy one. Derbies in general always seem to add a bit more.
“We’ve put ourselves under pressure is what we’ve done. But look, we know if we put our game together, we have the ability to put in some good performances and get the points that we need.
“We’ve spoken about our individual responsibility of our performance needs to improve first and foremost. And we’ve spent the morning and we spent the day trying to figure that out and had a great session today. All you can look after is this next couple of days training wise and put your best foot forward into the weekend.”
He is relieved to have recovered from the hamstring injury which recently sidelined him but knows that such knocks are more likely to happen as the number of games keep accumulated – in his case 105 Test matches and 195 in the red of his native province.
“I’ve picked up a couple of big niggles here and there that I’ve kind of strayed away from most of my career, soft tissue stuff that the physios are kind of looking at me with two heads that I’m not normally in the physio room being looked after like that. You know, that’s probably part of the old age and the body creaking a little bit, but I’m fit now, I feel good and I’m looking forward to the week, to be honest.”
He said there will be plenty of time to reflect on the highs and lows of his career when the boots get hung up in a few weeks but Ulster on Friday night is the primary focus. In time he will decide whether a coaching route is an option for him.
“Look, I don’t, I never say never, but at the moment I need to take a break from rugby. You know I’ve spent the last kind of 15, 16 years on the road a fair bit.
“Obviously, I’m living in Cork, so I commute here [to the Munster High Performance Centre in Limerick]. I obviously spent a lot of time in Dublin with Ireland. So, you know, I’ve been away from home for a fair bit over the last kind of 15 years.
“I think I need to spend a bit more time at home with young kids who are getting to the age now where they’re asking questions why I’m going out the door again. And, you know, it’s time to give a bit back there. They’ve sacrificed a lot for me.”
So, is there anything he is looking forward to or is there anything he will miss?
“Well, the Cork to Limerick road is something I won’t miss, to be honest with you. It’s a torturous b**tard road. The government should really pull their thumb out and sort out that road. I can’t understand it, but it’s too late in my career now for that to be sorted. I’d say anybody who has to travel that road would be in the same boat. It’s awful.”
