Munster are a win away from a second consecutive URC final.
Munster continued their run of great form with a tenth consecutive URC win, beating the Ospreys 23-7 to progress to the semi-final where they will face the Glasgow Warriors at home on Saturday night.
It was a solid performance all-round from the defending champions, with Simon Zebo scoring the opener in just under 2 minutes. The Ospreys would strike their only blow of the game moments later, Keelan Giles finishing off a try-of-the-season contender to bring the sides level.
Precise kicking from Jack Crowley would go on to seal the win for Graham Rowntree's men as they continue their run for back-to=back URC titles.
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Controversy over O'Mahony substitution
But a decision by head coach Graham Rowntree didn't seem to sit well with one of the Munster players during their win over the Welsh region. Peter O'Mahony looked peeved in the Thomond Park dugout having been called ashore just 46 minutes into the game.
One of the pundits who weighed in on the matter was former Munster man Alan Quinlan, who believes that O Mahony is being treated unfairly by the Munster coach.
"I don’t like the way Peter O’Mahony’s being treated at the moment in the sense of being taken off early in matches. He doesn't look happy, it looks premeditated and I don’t think it’s the right decision.
Speaking to The Build-up with Ladbrokes, Stephen Ferris backed Rowntree's decision to sub O'Mahony off, saying the Munster coach has credit in the bank to make big calls like this.
You have to be honest he hasn’t had a great impact on the games that he’s played in recent weeks. As a coach, your job is to strengthen the team it's not to be ‘ohh he's Peter O Mahony you know, 100 caps for Ireland, we have to leave him on because he's given so much to Munster, that would be really unfair.’ That's nonsense! It's about getting the right result, it’s about dominating the opposition.
People have got to give Graham Rowntree some slack, because what he’s done in the last ten weeks with wins on the bounce nobody really patted him on the back for that. They seem to be getting stuck into him for taking people off too early just because they’ve worn the red jersey of Munster for the last decade.
O Mahony who has been capped 187 times for Munster signed a new one=year contract in April, keeping him at the club for the 2024-25 season. Speaking at his first press conference since the Six Nations this week, O'Mahony admitted that the contract negotiations got "messy".
Regardless of Rowntree's reasoning for taking the back row off last weekend, O Mahony and the coaching staff will need to put all this behind them and focus on the task at hand at Thomond on Saturday. He'll wear the #6 jersey and it will be interesting to see how long he plays.
