Peter O’Mahony Has His Say On Wayne Barnes Maul Penalty Against Robbie Henshaw

Peter O’Mahony feels Ireland were potentially unlucky not to get a penalty try in last night’s loss to Wales.

Ireland came close to scoring in the second-half with a brilliant driving maul but referee Wayne Barnes awarded a penalty to Wales instead for obstruction, penalising Robbie Henshaw for joining from the side.

While people have questioned Barnes’ decision, he was technically correct. Peter O’Mahony however feels Ireland were potentially unlucky to not be awarded a penalty try in the first place, before Henshaw had interfered.

“I guessed it was a penalty try in our direction,” O’Mahony told Newstalk’s Dave McIntyre.

“Look, I haven’t seen it but Wayne is obviously one of the best referees in the world so you’ll have to go with his judgement.” 

“It’s tough to referee unless it’s blatant. As I said, I didn’t see it. At times, it’s refereed, at times it’s not. But if [Robbie] created a bit of a difference and Wayne saw that there was a bit of an obstruction there than that’s the call.” 

The Munster captain does feel however that Ireland can take positives from some aspects of the performance.

“Very frustrating. Look, I think we created a lot of opportunities, I think we got some field position and we put a lot of pressure on them. I think at the end of the day we didn’t capitalise on the opportunities that we made for ourselves and the small margins probably let ourselves down by not finishing them off,” he said.

“So a lot of positives to be taken but against a team like the Welsh lads’ caliber, you’re going to struggle if you’re not going to capitalise pressuring points.”