After giving his all and an 80-minute tour de force to rank with any he has given in his red-shirted career, the Munster captain Peter O'Mahony hailed Munster's bonus point, 35-14 win away to Wasps as right up there along with any he has experienced.
“It genuinely rates right up the very top of it. It was a bizarre scenario, the whole thing was bizarre. It gave us an opportunity to do something really special with a special group of people who haven’t spent a lot of time together.
“We spoke about just getting to the game, that was a win in itself. To get a bonus point away from home in Europe? That hasn’t really sunk in yet. That’s an incredible feat for the guys who played for Munster for the first time, never mind their first European game,” said O’Mahony to his squad’s dozen Euro debutants, of whom eight are in the province’s academy and five of whom started alongside the nine Test internationals.
0 of 3
"It's hard to sum up. It was an incredible two weeks. Obviously, we've had a lot of disruption and you're normally fine-tuning for Europe but we were kind of building from the ground up for the last two weeks.
“It has been incredibly enjoyable. It’s been a mental experience, but I couldn’t be prouder of the lads between the young fellas - obviously, it’s an incredible step up for them but they did some job tonight.
“The senior players who were left behind did an incredible job of coaching and doing multiple roles. Some guys who would have been ‘put their head down and work away,’ they put their guard down and really opened up to the young guys and helped them along as much as they could.
“Then the coaches, it was tough for them not being the people who were in isolation, they were the guys here thrown in the deep end. Cossie (Ian Costello) and Kyri (Andy Kyriacou) and Greig (Oliver), they did an incredible job liaising with the other guys and giving us some great sessions,” said O’Mahony of the three academy coaches who oversaw all the training and preparation in their HPC, the one active bubble of three the province’s hierarchy were managing simultaneously.
Turning his attention to the young tyros who illuminated the day, O’Mahony said simply: “They were class, they were absolutely class tonight.
“Scott (Buckley” hitting 100 per cent with his lineout throwing, his work around the park,” O’Mahony began with regard to the 21-year-old player of the match.
"Pa, I watched him play once for his club and he was really impressive," added O'Mahony of 19-year-old full-back Patrick Campbell.
“But tonight and the last two weeks in training, seeing the way he glides around the place, it was a stock-take moment for some of us, going ‘This guy is seriously impressive.’
“Tonight, on one of the biggest stages you can get, there he is doing the same thing as if he was playing for his school or club. It was incredibly impressive.
"Daniel was incredible," he added of 19-year-old number '8' Daniel Okeke, who O'Mahony took under his wing for the past fortnight.
“He got through so much work. He was in our lineout, he was in our six-man lineout, he was running attacking lineout plays off our five-man. He was involved in the four-man and he had a lot of stuff to learn.
“It’s difficult, trust me, to learn all the stuff we have lineout-wise and play-wise. He did a great job and we just said to him, ‘You just need to carry well because that’s what you’re good at.’
“He delivered an incredible performance, gave us front-foot ball. He was a bit loose at times with his offloading but as a whole, his performance was unbelievably impressive. I’m very proud of him.”
Finally, O’Mahony described how the young guns inspired his fellow older guard.
“It gave us a great focus and a great appetite. There was a carrot there to do something really special and there’s a carrot in itself for playing European rugby for the club you grew up in.
“A special occasion, guys had to step up and they did that over the last couple of weeks. The senior guys who were left behind did an incredible job and we wanted it as much as the young guys tonight to make it special for everyone. I was delighted to be able to be part of it.”
