‘What Pete’s Given Munster Is Nothing Short Of Incredible’ – Beirne

The lasting image from Munster’s 38-20 derby win over Ulster will undoubtedly be O’Mahony rising above Nathan Doak to collect Jack Crowley’s cross-field kick and score the last try of the night.

The retiring back rower slammed the ball down for the grounding, then flung it into the stand before being mobbed by his team-mates. His 17th try for his home province was a fitting way to close his book of Thomond Park memories.

As well as ensuring Munster are within reach of the BKT United Rugby Championship play-offs and also Champions Cup rugby for next season, you could see what it meant to O’Mahony and the 17,684-strong crowd that rose to acclaim him.

“I can’t put it into words how much of a legend Pete is to Munster Rugby,” said Beirne afterwards. “You could see that from the emotion of the crowd when he scored that try, and when he came off and everytime he came on the screen.

“Munster captain for over ten years, what he’s given to this team and the province is nothing short of incredible.

“So for him to top his last game in Thomond Park with a try is a lovely touch for him. You could see the emotion from him after he scored it, and I’m just delighted for him.”

Beirne also chipped in with a try, an expertly-finished charge-down effort after he had got his hands to an attempted clearance kick from Jack Murphy. It helped the hosts come from behind to lead 24-20 at half-time.

It has been a big week personally for the Kildare man who was the first name announced on the forwards list as the 2025 British & Irish Lions squad was made public at a live event in London on Thursday. He was first called up to the Lions four years ago, playing in two Tests in South Africa.

However, any thoughts of the upcoming tour to Australia have been parked for now, as Beirne wants to lead a URC title charge for Munster who were crowned champions in 2023 after winning three tough knockout matches on the road.

“We’re into knockout rugby at this stage for us. We said this week that first of all we want to get Europe (qualification for the Champions Cup) next year, and that’s the first thing.

“Then obviously we want to be in knockout rugby come the end of the season. We’ve another huge game next week, back in Cork against Benetton, so we’ll look forward to that after tonight.”

Securing maximum points against Ulster was a must after April unravelled for the Munstermen with their Champions Cup quarter-final exit to Bordeaux-Bègles, followed by a couple of frustrating URC losses at the hands of the Vodacom Bulls and Cardiff.

This time last year they went on a six-match winning run – making it through to the league’s semi-final stage before eventual champions Glasgow Warriors knocked them out – and recapturing that form will be the goal as they look to play their way into title contention.

“We need to win every game going forward now. We’ll use this as a stepping stone, and our performances are going to have to keep getting better and better if we want to go all the way here,” insisted Beirne.

“We’ll focus on Benetton come Monday. We’ll enjoy tonight, we’ll send off the lads from Thomond Park, and then we’ll give them another send-off from Cork next week.”

The players and staff he is referring to are the retiring trio of O’Mahony, Stephen Archer, and Dave Kilcoyne, departing scrum half Conor Murray, and team manager Niall O’Donovan, who is ending his long association with Munster Rugby.

O’Mahony played 63 minutes at blindside flanker and veteran tighthead Archer had an hour on the pitch, with both players coming off to big receptions from the crowd. The fans raised the decibel level too for Murray when he came on during the final quarter.

One of the real success stories of Munster’s season has been Tom Farrell, who has been ever-present across the URC and Investec Champions Cup campaigns. He ran in his ninth and tenth tries against Ulster, on the occasion of his 23rd competitive start.

The 31-year-old centre joined Munster from Connacht last summer, and delivered a player-of-the-match performance tonight, bagging a brace of tries to add to his hat-trick in December’s 22-19 triumph in Belfast.

“We always knew it was going to be tough coming into today,” admitted Farrell. “Before the game, we spoke about putting the table aside, and sending the five lads off and thankfully we’ve done that.

“I seem to be getting the knack of it (scoring tries)! I’m just popping up in the right spot at the right time. A lot of the tough work is done up front, so (I’m) happy out.”

He is clearly enjoying his run in the starting XV, and as well as his try-scoring contribution to a result which has moved Munster up to fifth in the table, he made two line breaks, beat four defenders, had a 100% success rate with 13 tackles, and won three turnovers.

The Dubliner is determined to finish the season as strongly as he started it, acknowledging: “To be honest when I arrived (at Munster), I probably didn’t think I was going to play as much as I did.

“With a couple of injuries in the back-line, that let me get a run of games in the side and thankfully I’ve managed to stay fit which is nice, and get on a bit of a roll.

“I feel if we can put some of those passages today out next week (against Benetton) and beyond, we will be tough to play against. But we know we’ve a good bit to fix up before we even think about that. It’s a big game next week to solidify things.”