Peter O’Mahony’s gaffe as Ireland captain forgets who Alex Mitchell is
Peter O’Mahony may have inadvertently provided additional ammunition for Ireland’s hosts ahead of Saturday’s meeting at Twickenham after seemingly mistaking Alex Mitchell, the starting England scrum-half, for a player who retired five years ago.
In an episode reminiscent of when Brodie Retallick, the New Zealand lock, infamously name-checked ‘Michael Lawes’ rather than Courtney a decade ago, O’Mahony appeared to confuse Mitchell with Lee Dickson.
Dickson, now the master in charge of rugby at Barnard Castle School in County Durham, won the last of his 18 caps in 2014 and retired from the game in 2019. The brother of Karl, a current Test referee, he did actually face O’Mahony in a 30-9 victory for England in 2012.
O’Mahony’s slip of the tongue came as he answered a question about how familiar Andy Farrell’s side would be with their upcoming opponents. Clearly, he was citing Mitchell’s performance in a 26-23 win for Northampton Saints over Munster in January.
“We’ve come across each other a fair bit,” O’Mahony said. “We had Northampton, Leinster had Leicester and Connacht had Saracens. I know we don’t play each other in our domestic leagues but between all our provinces, we come across a good chunk of the lads. That feedback comes in.
“The Leinster lads have spoken about the players that they have come across in the last couple of weeks. We’ve spoken about the likes of Dickson at nine, who did a lot of damage to us at Thomond Park.
“I know we don’t play in the same leagues but you certainly get a handle from our European stuff and we do a lot of video on the English players and the last few weeks, we’ve had to study them. You get your ins here and there.”
O’Mahony is expecting a robust challenge from Steve Borthwick’s charges in the set-piece and scrummaging exchanges and also praised England’s attack.
“I think their tenacity in their set piece and their ability to disrupt set piece is through the roof,” he added. “I think their ability with regard to disrupt breakdown, with the quality of poachers and counter-ruckers. And their power game is really, really strong – their forwards stuff around the corner.
“Their backs have a great balance of knowing when to play when it’s on. Again, it’s a massive defensive test for us tomorrow with the way they attack.”
