{"id":630923,"date":"2026-09-21T00:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T00:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630923\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T00:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T00:26:11","slug":"omahony-reveals-demeaning-rowntree-gesture-in-tense-munster-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630923\/","title":{"rendered":"O’Mahony Reveals Demeaning Rowntree Gesture In Tense Munster Talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a stellar servant for both Munster and Ireland<\/a> throughout his career, there was a huge amount of goodwill for Peter O’Mahony when he finally decided to hang up his boots.<\/p>\n

The Cork man brought the curtain down on his time in pro rugby after the 2024\/25 season. He had penned a one-year contract extension the prior summer, with the writing on the wall about potential retirement when he announced the end of his time with Ireland during that year’s Six Nations.<\/p>\n

O’Mahony was still operating at a top class level during that period, with many feeling that he had another season or two in him had he opted to go down that road.<\/p>\n

In saying that, it seems at least one figure at Munster was surprised to see him still be at the top of his game at that point.<\/p>\n

Peter O’Mahony had tense Munster contract talks<\/p>\n

Peter O’Mahony will release his autobiography All In next week, with the book currently being serialised in the Irish Independent. <\/a>In the book, he reveals a difficult conversation with then Munster head coach Graham Rowntree in the aftermath of the 2023 Rugby World cup.<\/p>\n

\n Recommended\n <\/p>\n

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O’Mahony had decided to extend his contract at Munster for a further year, running up until the summer of 2025. He assumed the process would be a straightforward one, although the province would be asked to pay the majority of his salary as he came off his IRFU central contract.<\/p>\n

He was asked to attend a meeting with Rowntree as the process dragged on, where the Englishman revealed that he did not see a future for the forward beyond the end of that season. He also suggested that the then 34-year old’s body was breaking down.<\/p>\n

The meeting got rather tense as O’Mahony argued his case. Things then threatened to boil over when Rowntree made a gesture by throwing his pen on the ground. It did not go down well.<\/p>\n

He had a pen in his hand. I could see that a thought had entered his mind. Suddenly he f**ked the pen across the floor of his office. I looked at him.<\/p>\n

He said, \u2018Go on over and pick the pen up. Show me how stiff you are.\u2019<\/p>\n

I\u2019m like, \u2018You\u2019re f**king joking me.\u2019<\/p>\n

Immediately he said, \u2018Forget about that, that was a joke. You\u2019ve read it wrong.\u2019<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve spent my adult life at the club, I said to myself, and this is what it\u2019s come down to now: Wig throwing a pen across the floor for me to fetch like a f**king dog.<\/p>\n

That was the end of the conversation.<\/p>\n

Peter O’Mahony outlasted Graham Rowntree at Munster<\/p>\n

As it turned out, Peter O’Mahony would last longer at Munster than Graham Rowntree.<\/p>\n

His contract was eventually approved, with the Cork man getting to end his time at the club on his own terms. That was not the case for his former head coach, who left Thomond Park by mutual agreement in October of 2024 after Munster lost four of their first six games in that season’s URC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a stellar servant for both Munster and Ireland throughout his career, there was a huge amount of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,6999,112],"class_list":["post-630923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-munster","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}