Peter O'Mahony

Podge_irl

Neil Best and Wallace at various points in time.

EOS had a soft spot for him alright, but he is actually not that dissimilar a player to POM. His lineout abilities were key to how our attacking game worked, but he was also quite good in a subtle way around rucks. Best had more highlight reel stuff, but bar about two seasons when he was at the height of his abilities Easterby was the better player.

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120340000#Comment_120340000

Strongly disagree with this, Easterby was excellent and consistently excellent.

leakyboots

That's not my memory of Easterby at all. And while Quinny was a good lineout option, I wouldn't have had him anywhere near POM in terms of ability to disrupt/rob opposition ball in the air.

ersatz

POM rolling back the years today. He was literally everywhere.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120350872#Comment_120350872

Very much in the conversation for MOTM. Worked his socks off.

Water John

He even always gives Irelands Call welly and not a note in his head. Great performance.

28064212

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120351093#Comment_120351093

And his (80 minute) performance during the match wasn't bad either!

Interested Observer

Another big game from him tbf. And wouldn't have been expected to go the 80.

Dubinusa

O'Mahoney was brilliant. Sensational performance.

whatawaster

I can't believe (and it wasn't just me) that I was calling on Ireland to move on from POM a few years back. He is playing better than ever. Phenomenal.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120352102#Comment_120352102

If a player has an elongated dip in form it's fair game to suggest other options be considered. Plenty were saying the same about Conan recently but he had a pretty big game yesterday too.

Coaches see a lot more during the week than the small window we get for 80 minutes at the weekend.

Madeoface

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120352143#Comment_120352143

Yeah, Conan had a blinder. POM looking like he's enjoying his Indian summer too.

Something in the chemistry in that dressing room. Faz must be the key

BoardsMember

Loved POM support of Ryan when he failed to make the offload to Lowe at the end....massive encouragement to Ryan for being there in support. So important to have POM in this team playing the way he is, huge leadership and experience.

tanko

Will he retire after the World Cup?

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120364310#Comment_120364310

Doesn't seem like it; he’s just recently signed a contract extension to the end of the 2023/24 season.

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120304909#Comment_120304909

Did a similar analysis, just for rucks for the England game, just to up the sample size, and POM hit the most attacking rucks of any Irish player during his 55 minutes on the pitch. Distrubution across the backrow as follows:

He's pretty vital to our attacking ruck speed. One thing that becomes clear when looking at it at this level detail is that, whenever there's a significant line break, POM is more often than not the first (and sometimes only player) to the breakdown.

As an aside, and maybe unsuprisingly, Aki hits a lot more breakdowns than any other back.

leakyboots

Fair play (are those stats for VdF and Doris for the full 80?), I really noticed during the game how much messy ball he either cleaned up for us or spoiled for England, nice to see actual figures. Did well in the lineout too I thought (as usual).

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120388216#Comment_120388216

They're just for the 55 minutes for everyone (and excluding the 3rd, 4th and 5th arrivals for those caterpillar rucks).

You start to see things repeating when watching it back like this tho. For example:

• The lineout move throwing to the tail we've tried twice now and it hasn't quite come off for us.
• We again tried the TH reverse pass to Keenan in this game that resulted in a try previously. England were more wise to it, but you could see POM's blocking role again in it, without trying to be too blantant about it.
• He's invariably the first man to a breakdown after a linebreak
• He's some man to pounce on a loose ball

He had a brilliant game overall tho. There was one absolutely exceptional lineout take the did really well to hold onto. And 2 huge dominant tackles as well, driving the attacking backwards or into touch.