If one player could ever be the physical embodiment of a rivalry between two teams, then Peter O’Mahony would surely be the poster boy for all the aggro and argy-bargy with Scotland and Ireland over the past decade or so.
Ireland are now enjoying a period of unprecedented dominance over the Scots. In a run stretching back to 2014, they have won 14 of the last 15 matches between the sides.
Scotland’s one and only triumph during that run came in 2017 in Vern Cotter’s last Six Nations as head coach, meaning that Gregor Townsend has never beaten Ireland in 10 attempts.
Rivalry? What rivalry? This has been a horribly one-sided affair for far too long, a flexing of green muscle that so often results in a brutal slap-down for those wearing the blue jerseys.
No player has contributed more to that than O’Mahony, the great enforcer in Ireland’s back row who is now winding down his career on a farewell tour in this Six Nations.
Now 35-years-old and with over 100 caps under his belt, O’Mahony didn’t play in the win over England last weekend and it remains to be seen whether or not he will be involved against Scotland.
Peter O’Mahony is the pantomime villain that Scotland target their ire towards this weekend
The flanker was front and centre when Ireland sealed the 2024 championship with a 17-13 win over Scotland in Dublin
But, whatever his involvement on the playing side, you can bet your bottom dollar that his influence and leadership will be to the fore in the Irish camp this week.
With retirement looming at the end of the season, the Murrayfield crowd would certainly love to give him one final send-off.
Why? Because O’Mahony is the player that Scottish rugby fans love to hate. He is the pantomime villain who has ruled this rivalry for a decade.
Broadly speaking, there have been too many nice guys in the Scotland camp over the past 10 years and not enough Peter O’Mahonys. That is the long and short of it.
This is a guy who has left Murrayfield countless times over the years with the lunch money of Scotland players rattling around in his pocket.
Certainly, no player has contributed more to the niggle that has brewed and festered between both teams.
For Scotland, this is the big one. Forget England. There is no point hamming-up tired old narratives about the Auld Enemy for a Scotland squad where so many players grew up overseas and need to learn the words to Flower of Scotland when they are called up.
If you were to ask Townsend and his players which team they dearly love to beat in the Six Nations, they would, almost without exception, all say Ireland.
Conor Murray is another Ireland player who Scotland fans have grown to dislike immensely
The two teams have clashed a lot in recent years, with Ireland usually coming out on top
Andrew Porter celebrates scoring against Scotland in their Six Nations meeting last year
In the modern day, there is no greater rivalry for Scotland. This is the grudge match which tops all others.
It’s difficult to pinpoint an exact moment where it all started. The genesis of the rivalry depends on who you ask.
But it is generally viewed that it was around the time when Glasgow Warriors started competing for silverware under Townsend a decade ago.
For instance, when Glasgow won the Pro12 title under Townsend in 2015, they beat Ulster in the semi-final and Munster in the final.
The previous season, they had beaten Munster in the semi-finals before then losing to Leinster in the final.
Those contests at club level laid the foundations for what was to unfold with the national teams, but it was in 2017 when things really moved on to a new level.
In January of that year, in a Champions Cup game between Glasgow and Munster, Conor Murray claimed some of the Warriors players had deliberately tried to injure him.
Munster and Ireland scrum-half Murray felt that he had been on the receiving end of some rough treatment and dirty tactics from Ryan Wilson, Josh Strauss and Jonny Gray.
In club rugby, the 2017 Champions Cup tie between Glasgow and Munster was a brutal affair
The 2017 clash at Murrayfield became known as ‘bus-gate’ for what happened pre-match
Murray insisted afterwards that he was ‘properly p***** off’ by Glasgow’s approach to tackling him and said they were deliberately trying to target his standing leg during his box-kicks.
That game then set the tone for the Six Nations clash at Murrayfield a couple of months later and the nonsense of what became known as ‘bus-gate’.
Ireland arrived at Murrayfield later than planned after being forced into what they felt was a questionable detour around Edinburgh on the team bus. They went on to lose 27-22.
Prior to that game, former Ireland fly-half Ronan O’Gara had been asked about Scotland and said: ‘I hope we hammer them. They’re too mouthy, but they can’t back it up.’
That’s essentially the nub of it. There is a perception in Ireland that Scotland are all talk and no trousers, a team who too often over-promise and under-deliver.
After a game in the Autumn Nations Cup in 2020, former Ireland head coach Eddie O’Sullivan gave Scotland both barrels, branding former captain Stuart Hogg ‘deluded’.
‘We’ve seen all this before,’ said O’Sullivan, who was Ireland head coach between 2001 and 2008. ‘They (Scotland) always talk themselves up, they always talk a great game.
‘They have some deluded notion that they are better than they are. I’m not being harsh. These guys haven’t won here (in Dublin) in 10 years. They’ve won three times against Ireland in nearly 20 years.
Ronan O’Gara stuck the boot into ‘mouthy’ Scotland saying they ‘can’t back it up’ before the tie
‘It’s just deluded. They talk themselves up, they come in and then they implode.’
By that point in late 2020, Hogg had already built his own history with Ireland.
In the 2019 Six Nations, he was ruled out of the championship due to injury after being caught with a late hit from O’Mahony.
In the Pro14 final at Celtic Park a couple of months later, Hogg’s final game for Glasgow was ended prematurely after he was poleaxed in mid-air by Leinster and Ireland full-back Rob Kearney. Again, no love lost.
Former Scotland coach and Irish TV pundit Matt Williams said in 2022: ‘I think that talk about it being their year was coming from the Scotland camp, again.
‘They have just got to shut up. Until they actually action out and live their talk, they have got to shut up because they are making fools of themselves.
‘Each time they come out and say: “We’re going to win, we’re a great side”. They’re not doing themselves any favours in the rugby world.’
In all fairness, what else are Scotland supposed to say? All they do is express a belief that they can win. It would be most alarming if they said they expect to lose.
Blair Kinghorn talked up Scotland’s chances at the 2023 World Cup but was cut down to size
But there are times when self-belief strays into misguided bravado, such as when Blair Kinghorn spoke in the build-up to the World Cup clash between the sides in Paris in 2023.
Knowing that Scotland needed to win and end Ireland’s long winning streak to progress, Kinghorn said: ‘They have been on a good run of form recently, but we’ll end that on Saturday.’
What unfolded thereafter was mortifying. Ireland turned up at the Stade de France and absolutely destroyed Scotland, racing into a 36-0 lead before eventually cruising home to a 36-14 win.
Afterwards, O’Mahony said: ‘They (Scotland) were in the press beforehand saying they were going to knock us off our winning streak and how they had figured us out and worked us out. I don’t think they did.’
Ouch. Scotland never laid a glove on Ireland. The only time they got close to landing a blow on them was when Pierre Schoeman rumbled with Dan Sheehan and sent the Ireland hooker toppling over an advertising board.
Prior to the Six Nations clash in Ireland last year, Ireland forward Tadhg Beirne said: ‘The Scots are the Scots.
‘We have our perception of them and I’m not going to verbalise it here because they’ve given us ammo in the past from what they’ve said in the media and I would be surprised if it was any different this week.’
Ireland won 17-13 to clinch the championship. Scotland, in the grand scheme of things, were little more than an irrelevance.
In the Six Nations Netflix documentary released last year, which showed footage from the previous championship, there was a moment which captured Townsend giving his players a pre-Ireland team-talk.
‘The last few years, I’ve heard a lot of things come out of Ireland,’ said the Scotland head coach. ‘The Irish players, the Irish media, believe we’re soft.’
But there is also politics involved. Ireland were understood to be unhappy with Scottish Rugby’s decision not to back their bid to host the 2023 World Cup, with Scotland instead voting for France.
It’s the little things like that which have coloured this rivalry. On and off the field, these two Celtic cousins quite simply don’t like each other.
When blue and green meet at Murrayfield on Sunday in the latest instalment, sparks will fly as hostilities are renewed.
