
Share
10th November 2016
01:58pm GMT

O'Mahony has not been in an Ireland team since he injured his knee so wretchedly in the World Cup win over France. He missed the rest of 2015/16 and only returned at the start of last month for his province.
There had been talk of the 25-year-old being Ireland captain after Paul O'Connell but his knee knock delayed the inevitable. He missed out on the 40-29 victory over New Zealand but will be eager to face them in the return match by having a decent outing against the Canadians.
Both O'Mahony and Sean O'Brien, in particular, have expressed frustration at missing out on the All Blacks victory. Asked about their being riled up and ready to prove a point, Schmidt said:
"Potentially [they will be] but I don't want them too frustrated. I want them focused and ready to do what they can do for the group. I've had a lot to do with them for the last three years "As tempted as we were last week, our greatest fear was somebody getting injured early in the match and one of those guys having to come off the bench for 70 minutes. As it transpired [with Jordi Murphy's injury], it was 56 minutes. When you are competing with the All Blacks, that is still 56 very fast minutes."Schmidt, once again, talked up the alternatives to the experienced O'Mahony and O'Brien. The Kiwi was once again stressing his squad's strength in depth. "In the end," he said, "we were really confident that Josh [van der Flier] could do a job and, as you saw, he did." Schmidt has no doubt that O'Mahony will be ready. The auditions for the vacant No.7 jersey are about to begin. The GAA Hour chats to Ballyea sensation Tony Kelly and features a raging argument over which road you should take from Clare to Wexford. Subscribe here on iTunes.
Explore more on these topics: