Born to lead.

As soon as Peter O’Mahony set foot in Munster, you knew this man was born to lead. A natural successor to Paul O’Connell, the back-row embodies what it means to be a rugby captain. Raw passion, incredible work-rate, that sheer will to put your body on the line.

This weekend O’Mahony’s incredible ability to lead has been rewarded as he captains the Lions in the first Test against the All Blacks. Ahead of the game, Jerry Flannery spoke to BBC 5 Live Sport about O’Mahony and his attitude in training and it’s a fascinating insight.

“He’s confrontational, he’s aggressive. He walks a fine line between intimidating other players at training and making people raise their standards to get up to where the team needs to be,” Flannery said.

“Anyone can tell from looking at him that he’s a very confrontational character when he plays on the field and that’s what he builds his game around. He’s pretty old-school when it comes to rugby, and that’s what he builds his game around.”

“When I was playing in Munster I remember him coming up through our academy and he’d approach the older players to listen to them. But was not in any way in awe of them. He was saying ‘What can I take from these people and use myself?’

“He’s always been the most mature guy in the group coming through age-grade rugby – he always came forward as a captain,” 

“This is the culmination of all the hard work he’s put in over his career…He’s one of the best line-out forwards I’ve ever seen,”