PAUL O’CONNELL ADMITTED recently that he’s picked up the phone and called a former team-mate for advice on the next move he faces in his glittering rugby career.
And Brian O’Driscoll isn’t a bad man to ask.
The legendary Leinster centre tacked on an extra season to his playing days and didn’t regret it as he added a Grand Slam to his honours haul. Speaking on Off The Ball last night, O’Driscoll said his advice is ‘if in doubt, play on’ but admits only O’Connell can make the call.
“Only Paul O’Connell knows how he feels every morning after a game. He wants to get out of the game, relatively unscathed,” he told Joe Molloy.
“And he’s probably there now. But at the same time you are a long time retired and that was my advice to him. If you feel you are capable of still playing then go for another one.
“I’m glad I went for the extra one as much as it was dragged out from a press point of view. I was delighted that I played it. Not just because there was success at the end of it but because I would have felt I left too much in the tank if Id gone the year previously.
“You just get that sense that Paul’s playing so well; arguably or definitely Ireland’s Six Nations player of the tournament. He just looks in phenomenal condition too. We’re all saying why would you? But he’s the one who has to deal with the aches and pains so we can’t fully understand it.”
Should O’Connell decide to play on past the World Cup, he may well do so in France if Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal has his way. O’Driscoll admits the move to the south of France would be a perfect way to end a career.
“I would have said very very tempting,” he said. “If, I presume there’s no smoke without fire. I presume the offer is there and Boudjellal has been trying to coax him across.
“If I was him it would be a perfect opportunity to go spend eight months down the south of France, play with an unbelievable team, he’s got a young family. People that say you’d undo the legendary status… I would rubbish that talk. I really don’t buy it.
“He’s cemented his status down there and can always go back as a coach or as an ambassador for the club or whatever he wants. He’s done magical things for Munster and that can’t be undone.
“He’s not going down to get himself a tan. He’s going to have the Steve Staunton hat on the whole time. But he would have ambition to go and play with those brilliant players and win a fourth European Cup I’m sure if he did go down there.
“But I haven’t wanted to ask him, I’m just reading the same as everyone else in the papers. He’ll come to his own decision I’m sure.
Jesus he wouldn’t be human if it hadn’t affected him
There’s obviously the gust and bluster that goes with McGregor, he’s built up that caricature and it’s served him well. People will love or hate it but either way they’ll have an opinion on him and that’s what it’s designed to do but anytime you hear or read the stuff the lad talks about away from directly promoting a fight he comes across as a genuine, intelligent, hard working lad. Credit to him and the job he’s doing.
I’m being a bit overly cynical here and perhaps Conor is being very honest about what happened but I just hope that he’s not using the death of that Portuguese fighter as a bit of a smokescreen for whatever it was that was really going on.
That’s not his style, Nobody knows what he was talking about. Just speculation and could be anything.
Aye I’m aware of that, I did say that I was probably just being overly cynical and from what I’ve seen from McGregor he seems too honest and wears his heart on his sleeve too much to really ever be a convincing liar.
So next time you are being overly cynical and feel like you probably are, Why don’t you keep it to yourself instead putting it out there and talking crap.
cool your jets pro chef it’s an observation with no malice.
People look to deep into things, His budgie could of had a broken wing for all we know, He’s human with human problems. He was asked a question and he answered it, He told it how it was after that lad died and he was one of the first to offer his condolences.
Floyd Mayweather needs him?lol.he would need a hurl to land a blow on Floyd in a boxing ring.
John, Mayweather would need a hurl to land a blow on mcg in an mma fight.
In terms of making a 100 million off record ppv ,yes Floyd needs conor, a fight against Danny Garcia is not going to pull in the kind of numbers to make Floyd a 100 millions,even though this anticipated match up with boxing v mma is a complete publicity stunt by Floyd, and has worked fantastically
Irish begrudgery is alive and well judging by the last couple of days. First I see dozens of comments criticising McIlroy for donating his prize money to charity now people are accusing McGergor of using a man’s death for publicity.
I find it hard to believe when conor is giving honest and heartful opinion on how he felt, people still piss all over it.
Don’t let the Luas drivers read this
In 36 months he be on im a celeb get me outta here with ant and dec game over !!
Eh, like, eh 3 years like!?
He’s like marmite you either love him or hate him
Or think he’s alright but talks a lot of balls sometimes.
Marmite doesn’t talk a lot of balls but I don’t care much for its opinions on the Middle East.
He’s like marmite, he’s a dark savoury spread made from yeast and vegetable extract..
A new low for McGregor
$100 million? Absolutely laughable. What a cod.
It’s a bit hard to stomach the apparent grief displayed by McGregor and his regular taunts to opponents, eg prior to Aldo fight:
“I’m hungry right now. I’m prepared to kill this man and unify the belts.”
All shyte talk I suppose.
Not one mention of the Diaz rematch…something tells me he shot his mouth off a wee bit too much and he realised he was going to get 7 bells knocked out of him for a second time, then it would be game over.
This kind of sport does attract a certain kind of people. So violence will follow.
Oh your right I guess that’s why the majority of the athletes in the ufc either have degrees or MAs, military distinctions, run their own businesses, represent their countries at Olympic and national level, have black belts in multiple disciplines or teach martial arts and self defence to kids and their communities but yeah I guess they could also be that lay about, uninspiring, undisiplined kind of people and how stupid and “violent” are the fans for appreciating these low lifes! Your an ignorant fool.
Nick, 2 guys boxing the heads off each other is violent! It doesn’t take a degree to figure that out.
Brick wall.
@dublinlad interesting viewpoint you hold, do you see all contact sports in this light, or just MMA? Or if you are a fan of violent sports – do you just prefer the nice accents from the “certain kind of people” that attend rugby matches…
Typical. Time to hurl rocks at the bandwagon you just jumped from.
He pulled out of the media obligations to see if he could flex his pulling power to renegotiate a bigger wedge,he lost and then to use the death of a fellow pro for sympathy points The man has no shame
Egg chaser you haven’t a clue what your talking about.
Jaysus using the death of a fellow pro as an excuse, disgusting
If he was doing that it would have come up weeks ago when everything blew up. It’s obvious to me that he didn’t want to even mention it at the Time.
Conor had the perfect opportunity to show how upset he was by putting is hand in his pocket to pay to get the guy home but he didn’t and an undertaker had to offer his services for free. Talk is cheap.
I’m sure his mother has had press knocking on the door 7 days a week since he hit the big time. And not a mention from Conor of not wanting to leave Paddy Holohans retirement gig in Iceland… Gunnar Nelson described on MMA Hour how it was first time the core SBG team had been together in over 2 years and he didn’t want to leave. Ah well at least he’s come to his senses and said sorry to his bosses – we might get to see him fight again.
Idiot