Munster and Ireland back-row Peter O’Mahony has signed a new one-year contract with the province.
O'Mahony gave up the Munster captaincy ahead of this season to concentrate on playing but there is no word to whether he will continue in his role as Ireland captain for the coming year.
TIMELINE - 2007 - Munster Senior Schools Cup winner with PBC as a fifth-year student.
2008 - Joins Munster Academy
2010 - Munster debut in January away to Ulster as a 21-year-old; AIL winner with Cork Con, winning Man of the Match on final
2011 - Wins first league title with Munster.
2012 - Ireland debut in February v Italy, Dublin; wins Munster’s Young Player of the Year award.
2013 - Named Munster club captain.
2014 - Six Nations winner with Ireland (4 starts)
2015 - Six Nations winner with Ireland (5 starts)
2017 - Captains the Lions for the First Test against the All Blacks, making four Tour appearances in total.
2018 - Six Nations Grand Slam winner with Ireland (5 starts)
2019 - Munster Player of the Year
2023 - Six Nations winner with Ireland (4 starts); captains Munster to URC title; steps down from Munster captaincy role in August following being their longest-serving captain of the professional era.
2024 - Captains Ireland to Six Nations Grand Slam (4 starts)
TO DATE - 105 Ireland caps; 182 Munster appearances
Niall Scannell has been a colleague of O'Mahony for over a decade at Munster and a stand-in captain by times: "He's been unbelievable, any compliments you give Pete this week aren't enough.
"He's the guy that was a couple years ahead of me in school, I was in the Academy and I've known him a long, long time.
"It's something that, even when I was an Irish camp, you know, he was always a leader up there, but maybe just didn't get enough opportunities around captaincy with Rory Best and Johnny Sexton and stuff but he was always that still talisman kind of figure up there so it's great to see this now."
There may yet be another trophy for O'Mahony as he comes in almost an '2023/24 URC extra' for Munster having only played 40 minutes against Stormers in Round Five and 74 minutes against Cardiff in Round 13.
"Credit to him," says fellow back-row Gavin Coombes, "I think there has been a lot of times over the last couple of years we thought we had probably seen the end of him.
"But he always has a lot to offer, he is a big part of this group and obviously a huge part of the group with Ireland. He goes about his business very professionally, he is obviously a leader and has been here for many years.
"Even though he is not captain this season, he is still a big voice in the squad, having him around is huge and the way he is playing, his levels haven't dropped, so he's big for us."
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