With Peter O’Mahony, in his early years with ther Irish set-up, getting blockbuster answers and automatic headlines from him was hard going.
O’Mahony was there to do a job and that was on weekends. He gave short shrift to any reporter trying to draw him out of those safe-zone answers. A line of questioning could be shut down as quickly as one of his breakdown poaches, with a dismissive sniff or a straight-up glower.
The safe bet was to ask him how much playing for Ireland meant to him. What he felt when he heard the anthems. Passion. Ask him about passion and he could talk until the media officer gave everyone the wrap-it-up sign.
Everyone at Munster knew they had a gem when Peter O’Mahony started off with the underage teams….