{"id":422278,"date":"2026-02-12T19:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T19:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/422278\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T19:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T19:32:10","slug":"people-dont-understand-some-of-the-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/422278\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cPeople don’t understand some of the consequences”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Interviews with sports stars or coaches can often take on a push-pull nature. Reporters are trying to draw good lines and anecdotes out of the big names, many of whom are well aware of that and carefully couch their words.<\/p>\n

As a player, Peter O\u2019Mahony was often a tough interview. He never liked to give much away and, in his earlier years, would come across as terse. The only time he ever seemed to light up was when he was asked about his pride at playing for Munster, or what it meant to pull on an Ireland<\/a> jersey.<\/p>\n

As a captain, he could be a scowling, stare-you-down protector of his teammates,\u00a0and their honour.\u00a0In 2017, he famously bristled, \u201cYou\u2019re questioning my teammates?\u201d to TG4\u2019s Reggie Corrigan<\/a>, when\u00a0the\u00a0former Ireland prop queried Munster\u2019s intensity after a loss to Leinster.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a skill in itself,\u201d\u00a0O\u2019Mahony\u00a0said\u00a0of handling tricky post-match questions. \u201cIt is something you acquire over time, and with your experiences. A lot of the time, the (press officer) lads would use me, particularly if we lost, because I wouldn\u2019t say a huge amount. Sometimes that\u2019s the best thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Mahony retired from rugby at the end of last season and has been slow to vault head-long back into that world. This Saturday, though, the former Ireland and British & Irish Lions<\/a> captain will make his punditry debut, on Virgin Media, when he joins the likes of Conor Murray<\/a> and Rob Kearney<\/a> to pore over some Six Nations<\/a> action.<\/p>\n

\"\"O\u2019Mahony bids farewell after his final home game for Munster<\/a> last year (Photo Brendan Moran\/Sportsfile via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

During a chat with O\u2019Mahony ahead of that broadcaster\u2019s coverage of Ireland versus Italy, many questions lingered on the hangover stemming from Andy Farrell\u2019s side getting pulled apart from France<\/a> in the opening game. There was something else bugging the Cork native, though. Something he wanted to get off his chest.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reasons I want to do (punditry) is that I want to get across how difficult it is, and how tough it is, at times, when you lose,\u201d he commented. O\u2019Mahony was nudging the door open, and inviting a follow-up. He had plenty to say. He is not the only one to recognise the rising heat in online debates around\u00a0Leinster<\/a> duo\u00a0Sam Prendergast,\u00a0and\u00a0Harry Byrne,\u00a0Munster\u2019s\u00a0Jack Crowley and Ireland\u2019s No.10 jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou take the outhalf thing, for example,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a circus at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople love sport in Ireland, people love the game,\u00a0but some of the opinions cross the line on social media. People get hysterical about it. People who don\u2019t know what they\u2019re talking about. People are firing stuff off online that,\u00a0these days,\u00a0goes direct to a fella\u2019s phone. I don\u2019t think they understand some of the consequences it might have.\u00a0I\u2019d like to talk about some of that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Mahony was only warming up. He made his Munster debut in 2010 but, in his opinion, the prevalence of social media, in the ensuing years, has only ramped up the pressure on young sports stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need time. You need time in the jersey. You need experience. You need to fail. You need to make mistakes. Fortunately, back in my day, you could do that without having every delinquent in the parish sending you a letter through the post-box,\u00a0but now you can do it instantly to a fella\u2019s phone.<\/p>\n

Peter O\u2019Mahony<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have two very young men\u00a0(Sam and Jack),\u00a0who are inexperienced,\u201d O\u2019Mahony said.\u201cYou put Harry into that boat now,\u00a0as well. You have three guys who have lots and lots of talent, who are trying to figure out their careers. People think that one of these guys was going to turn into Johnny Sexton<\/a> overnight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying Jack and Harry and Sam are reading all this stuff but,\u00a0when there\u2019s that much of it, it can get through and it\u2019s hard not to hear some of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough. You have pressure. The game itself is pressured enough without having all the outside stuff. I think people need to have a little bit more cop-on or respect,\u00a0at times.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Strong words from a guy that does not have these players under his protective wing any more. His words are valid, too, in light of the social media pile-on that\u00a0followed Ireland\u2019s disappointing loss to France. Joe McCarthy<\/a>, Tommy O\u2019Brien, Caelan Doris<\/a> and Jacob Stockdale<\/a> have all come in for grief across the various social platforms. Not for the first time,\u00a0Sam Prendergast has received a disproportionate amount of criticism and personal jibes.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sam Prendergast<\/a>, right, and Peter O\u2019Mahony before Ireland\u2019s captain\u2019s run in 2024 (Photo Seb Daly\/Sportsfile via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

It was something Johnny Sexton alluded to, when I spoke with him after the Autumn Nations Series. Sexton is well versed on arguments over the 10 jersey getting tribal, and not feeling \u2013 certainly in his early years of international rugby \u2013 fully embraced by all corners of the island, when he pulled on a green jersey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very lucky to have\u00a0both of them, Sam and Jack,\u201d the Ireland assistant coach told me. \u201cI know it\u2019s harder with social media, and media, but I hope that we can\u00a0get behind whoever is picked, rather than, I suppose, one half of the country thinking\u00a0the other guy should be playing and only supporting them when that person is\u00a0starting. We\u2019re need to\u00a0get behind both of them, because we\u2019re going to need both,\u00a0and probably more, for the next World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ronan O\u2019Gara was on the other side of that tug-of-war for Ireland\u2019s 10 jersey, between 2009 and his retirement in 2013. Before that, it was O\u2019Gara vs. David Humphreys<\/a>, although those arguments were confined to pub stools, radio phone-ins and the pages of national newspapers.The Munster legend is now the centre of much online discourse around role as head coach at Stade\u00a0Rochelais.<\/p>\n

In cold, hard reality nothing could\u00a0entirely\u00a0insulate\u00a0him [Prendergast]\u00a0from the torrent of opinions that were soon flying around, regarding his temperament, gait, tacking technique, big-game mentality, and so much more.<\/p>\n

Speaking to me from France,\u00a0O\u2019Gara\u00a0reflected, \u201cMy reality is, I\u2019m in the firing line, over here. That\u2019s par for the course, and it\u2019s what you sign up for. It\u2019s never plain sailing. When it comes to coping with it, you never have all the solutions. When you think you\u2019ve the game cracked, you come crashing down to earth. And when you are on your knees, something breaks for you. I truly believe that. You have to keep a level of consistency that best represents you; not anyone else. That\u2019s not always easy, and everyone is different, but you can never get too high, or too low, or the game will eat you up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sam\u00a0Prendergast\u00a0was eased into the life of a rugby professional by having an older brother and role model, Cian, breaking into the Ireland team at 22.\u00a0The Kildare native\u00a0may have felt he was prepared for all that would be thrown at him, good and bad. In cold, hard reality nothing could\u00a0entirely\u00a0insulate\u00a0him\u00a0from the torrent of opinions that were soon flying around, regarding his temperament, gait, tacking technique, big-game mentality, and so much more.<\/p>\n

\"\"O\u2019Gara and David Humphreys, pictured at the 2003 Rugby World Cup, battled for the Ireland No 10 shirt for years (Photo Odd ANDERSEN\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to avoid it,\u201d he told me, at the start of this season,\u00a0\u201cbut you can\u2019t avoid it. Even if you\u2019re not on social media, you are seeing different articles or you have people coming up to you. As I\u2019ve learned, people are not afraid to tell you what they think, whether it is good or bad.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s brilliant when it is going well but can all change, when things are not. That\u2019s why you can\u2019t get angry at it. You\u2019ve just got to stay as level-headed as possible. That\u2019s probably what I\u2019ve learned. That first (full) season was a huge experience. Before last season, it would have been the odd sprinkle and a lot of it was positive. Nothing, really, to write home about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the course of last season,\u201d Prendergast added,\u00a0\u201cthere were some obviously brilliant parts and huge highs, but some really, really tough lows\u2026\u00a0You quickly realise that you can\u2019t get as high when it is all going well, as you can get just as low when it is not going well. And it\u2019s all about who you listen to, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the people you are friends with, and the ones you trust. As someone said to me, if you wouldn\u2019t look for advice off them, then don\u2019t listen to their criticism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter O\u2019Mahony<\/p>\n

That line of thinking tallies with how Dan Biggar<\/a> viewed outside criticism and constant debates, and headlines. The\u00a0former Wales<\/a> and Lions outhalf\u00a0said; \u201cI made what I think\u00a0was a smart decision that I was going to stay off social media, for the whole of my career, because I didn\u2019t want that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat made it really a decision that I felt was vindicated was getting on the team bus, in Cardiff, after we played Ireland in 2013. I got on the bus and looked down the bus, and all the boys were on their phones. Not checking messages or watching a football match, or anything. They were all scrolling, and looking for comments about them. And the problem is, nobody is\u00a0looking for the good stuff. There could be 50 good messages but one bad message, and that is the one people often singled out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a different age now,\u201d he conceded.\u00a0\u201cEverybody has got an opinion and, as a sports star, nearly everything you do is picked up by millions of people. The only people I used to care about was my teammates, coaches and my family and friends. If anybody else has opinion, that\u2019s for them. It\u2019s like me, I\u2019ve got my opinions on Man United but it doesn\u2019t mean I know anything about football.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople should be asking themselves, \u2018Am I helping the problem or becoming more of a problem by posting these messages?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Interviews with sports stars or coaches can often take on a push-pull nature. Reporters are trying to draw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-422278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}