Irish hard-man Peter O'Mahony ranks his three toughest opponents

The 32-year-old, who we included in our 2022 World XV, was a star performer as Ireland recorded a historic first away series win in New Zealand this summer.

Interestingly, his trio of toughest ever opponents, which you can see below, all played for the All Blacks.

This interview was done prior to the 2022 tour.

O'Mahony said: "Read was probably the most skilful I’ve come up against whether it was backs or forwards – he’d be well up there as well.”

DID YOU KNOW? Read was a talented cricketer, representing Northern District age-group teams and being selected for the New Zealand Under-17 tournament side in 200

In the 2020 Queen's Birthday Honours, Read was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to rugby.

O'Mahony said: One of my heroes. I feel very privileged to have played against him. The All Blacks have never replaced him."

DID YOU KNOW? McCaw's great-great-grandfather immigrated to New Zealand from the Scottish Borders in 1893. As tribute to his roots, the legendary All Black has learned how to play the bagpipes.

O'Mahony said: “In games, I remember for some reason that Ospreys team when I first started off. They had a back-row of Jerry Collins, [Filo] Tiatia and Marty Holah would have been playing in the back-row as well. I was only probably just out of my teens. It was a nasty enough back-row to be coming up against. Collins was a viscous bas***rd but a real gentleman off the pitch."

DID YOU KNOW? Collins was a cousin of former All Blacks captain and Hurricanes teammate Tana Umaga.

Death: Collins and his partner Alana Madill, aged 34, died on the morning of 5 June 2015, after Alana fell asleep at the wheel and lost control of their car and collided with a bus on the A9 autoroute near Béziers in southern France. His three-month-old baby daughter, Ayla, survived, largely due to Collins attempting to take the brunt of the force away from Ayla by enveloping her in his own body