Farrell: O’Mahony reaction shows ‘proper leadership’

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has praised his captain Peter O’Mahony for his reaction to being dropped ahead of Saturday’s second Test with South Africa in Durban.

The Munster flanker drops to the bench for the game at King’s Park, with Caelan Doris taking over the captaincy for the meeting with the Springboks.

The 34-year-old loses out to Leinster’s James Ryan as Farrell looks to add more bulk to his starting pack, with Ryan moving into the second row, and Tadhg Beirne sliding across to blindside flanker.

It’s a major call from the Ireland coach to leave out his squad captain for such a pivotal game, but Farrell said he’s been impressed with how O’Mahony has handled it.

“You don’t expect those conversations to be easy and don’t get me wrong, he’s not accepting and he’s not happy obviously but he does the right thing for the team,” the Ireland head coach said.

“That’s at the forefront of his mind constantly, and that’s proper leadership. He understands that we want to have a look in this direction to see how it goes.

“He’s the captain of this tour and it shows the mark of the man how you lead after a bit of disappointment, how you carry on being yourself or not.”

Farrell (above) added that O’Mahony still has a big role to play this weekend against the world champions.

“He’s on the bench for a reason. He makes people feel good, it’s right when he’s there with his presence and leading.

“That has been so evident over the last couple of days so he couldn’t have done a better job in that regard.”

Farrell was also quick to highlight the form of Ryan, who has forced his way back into the side.

The Leinster co-captain was a second half replacement for Joe McCarthy at Loftus Versfeld, and effectively gives Ireland three second rows in their starting side, with Beirne at flanker.

It’s a selection Farrell has tried before, notably in the opening Rugby World Cup game against Romania in Bordeaux last September.

“What people are failing at this moment in time to talk about is that James Ryan has been a starter for us for years and years and been a real leader within our side and he’s not happy sitting on the bench neither.

“We’ve seen some real guts and fight and determination to get his starting place back, so I thought he had a great impact off the bench last week.

“How he’s trained throughout this tour so far shows that he’s hungry, so we’re hoping to get something from him, and also we know that Tadhg Beirne’s a world class player no matter what position he plays in.”

Given some of the headlines this week, Farrell’s selection is also a bold endorsement of Doris (above) as his future Ireland captain.

The 25-year-old skippers the side this week, having filled the role for the second half last week after O’Mahony had been replaced.

The number 8 found himself on the wrong side of referee Luke Pearce, who could be heard losing his patience with Doris on a number of occasions.

And Farrell followed his defence coach Simon Easterby in backing their player’s ability to communicate well with match officials.

“I’m more than fully confident. I thought he [Doris] was excellent at the weekend.

“I think first and foremost he leads from the front. He’s in outstanding form, his performance last week, never mind the leadership or captaincy bit, he was outstanding. Be the best version of yourself, that’s the best form of leadership.

“He’s a calming influence, he’s bright. The questions that he’s going to the referees with are the right ones. His manner is very good as well.

“I’m sure as Caelan goes through his leadership roles, hopefully there will be many more as far as captaincy is concerned, albeit he is still in that infancy as far as trying to get some more experience, hence why he’s got this opportunity.

“He’ll continue to have respect for himself, as a captain, as a leader, but also in the eyes of the referees as well,” Farrell said of Doris.

The Ireland head coach made four changes in total, with Rónan Kelleher, Conor Murray and Garry Ringrose also coming into the starting team.

Kelleher and Murray replace Dan Sheehan and Craig Casey who were ruled out earlier in the week, while Farrell confirmed a shoulder injury proved too much for Bundee Aki (above), whose place is taken by Ringrose.

“He [Aki] had a bang on his shoulder that he was brave enough to go through the last 20 minutes of the game.

“That’s what he does for his team. He’ll fight when he has to, but unfortunately it was really sore at the beginning of the week and he was a bit shut down, and it would have been a risk.

“Also, with the quality of back-up centres that we’ve got, we have to do the right thing by the team and Bundee understands that,” he added.

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