Brendan Gallagher’s feature: Paul O’Connell can bow out in style

It’s time to start making a fuss of Paul O’Connell which, of course, being the modest type the Ireland captain will hate but for once he will have to just lump it. Last week the good ladies of the Emerald Isle with a delicious sense of humour and timing decided to vote him Ireland’s sexiest man – eat your heart out Tommy Bowe, Rob Kearney and the other pin-ups in the backs – and on Saturday in Cardiff O’Connell will be cheered to the rafters as he sprints on for his 100th Ireland cap.
There is a definite vibe that 2015 is likely to be his final Test year which the great man is doing little to discourage. If Ireland continue in their current form O’Connell could appear in another ten or eleven Tests by the end of October by which time he will be on his knees. A battering ram of a second row like POC can’t go on for ever and not count the cost going into middle age. He wants to enjoy his golf and get back to the near scratch player he was as a teenager.
Yes, at the age of 35, he is playing better than ever and looks the picture of health, but O’Connell is a realist and knows exactly how much his body aches some mornings. He has suffered some big injuries over the years – back and pelvis plus all the normal collateral damage locks endure at the battlefront – and at one stage it seemed unlikely he would reach the century for Ireland. Rest assured he will be stepping off the international treadmill long before any dip in form takes the decision out of his hands It seems a very long time since he made an incident-packed Ireland debut against Graham Henry’s Wales at Lansdowne Road in 2002. Before the match he revealed his golfing prowess and also admitted he was a junior Irish swimming champion although he rather spoiled the impact by adding there were only four competitors in his event.
Just out of his teens, the broth of a Limerick lad managed to knock himself senseless after bumping into Craig Quinnell’s elbow soon after the kick off come the match and he still has no recollection of events until just before the final whistle. When he eventually got to see a recording of the game he watched an inspired Ireland scored six tries and destroy Wales 54-10. O’Connell even scored a try himself before going off with two minutes to go. Three days later Henry resigned as Wales coach.
“It was a strange old debut,” recalls O’Connell. “I eventually had to come off and I looked up at the clock, which said two minutes and 30 seconds. I turned round to our doctor and said ‘I can’t believe I’m coming off after only two minutes of my debut’. But he laughed and told me the clock was counting down, not showing how long had been played. I didn’t even remember scoring, fancy not remembering that on your debut.” We laughed back then and actually it still brings a smile but O’Connell should clearly have come off. Concussion and its full long term implications are now very much at the top of the medical agenda but just 13 years ago rugby took a much more cavalier approach to player safety.
Anyway, it was a start and a stellar Ireland career was clearly indicated. Within just a couple of  years, following the retirement of Keith Wood after the 2003 World Cup, O’Connell had established himself as the lynchpin of the Ireland pack and that status has never changed in well over a decade of Test rugby. There was definitely a twin axis operating with Ireland when Brian O’Driscoll and Paul O’Connell were on the field together. BOD was in charge of the backs, defence and miracles. POC ran the pack.
The Triple Crowns started to accumulate under Eddie O’Sullivan – three of them – but it wasn’t all plain sailing. For a long while the Championship and Grand Slam proved elusive and the World Cup failure in 2007, when Ireland started the year ranked three in the world, hit hard and mystified O’Connell who had trained himself to the bone and if anything lost too much weight and power for the tournament. You live and learn.
There have been some years when injuries severely curtailed his Ireland appearances – 2010, 2012 and 2013 – but each time he has returned fit, fresh and strong. He was appointed Ireland’s full-time captain early in 2013, having deputised over the years when O’Driscoll was injured, and his shrewd leadership contributed massively to last year’s Six Nations title.
That though was possibly just the start of something very good. Following Ireland’s recent 19-9 victory against England – Ireland’s tenth win on the bounce – O’Connell conceded that Ireland under Joe Schmidt could be the best Ireland team he has ever been associated with: “Yeah it’s close to it. We are doing a lot of things really well. The way we’re preparing is a lot different from what we’ve done in the past in my time here. I just think the game-by-game focus suits Irish teams and Irish people.
“We will be put under huge pressure at the Millennium Stadium and we need to prepare certain things for Wales. That will be the sole focus of the players and those situations work well for us, it gets the best out of us. It’s creating a brilliant set-up and an exciting set-up to be involved in.”
So for the remainder of 2015 anyway it’s all systems go and Ireland fans – and others – can make their appreciation known at various staging posts along the way, starting at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.
It’s been a pivotal venue for O’Connell over the years – Heineken Cup Finals and Grand Slam-clinching games – and if he can’t mark his 100th Ireland appearance at the Aviva in Dublin the Millennium will do very nicely thank you.