THE END IS nigh. Not of Paul O’Connell or his incredible feats on a rugby pitch, but for his time in a Munster jersey.
After 14 years, 173 appearances, 19 tries, four trophies and a bottomless pit of his own blood and sweat, the Limerick man will take on Glasgow Warriors in Belfast knowing that he will not don the red jersey again.
It’s been a hell of a journey.
Paul O’Connell made his debut against Edinburgh in 2001. 14 years on, he was still carrying the fight to them
Making yards with the ball in hand was never his strongest suit, but it took a brave man to take him down
A natural leader, all other ‘alphas’ instinctively rowed in behind
The ultimate piece of artillery in maul
Be it in attack…
…or defence
As a line-out jumper, he remains imperious
Making red ball steady and opposition possession an absolute nightmare
There were bad days
Sad days
Miraculous days
All of them were Tough Days
But we’ll all remember the great days
One thing never changed, commitment
He’s played against the best
Played with the best
And he has been the best
He has waved goodbye to a golden generation
He’s ushering in a new one
Paul O’Connell, the man that made European rugby fear Munster
They are a fantastic team. They did themselves and the country proud. It’s a a game of very fine margins like the French game last night. Keep your heads held high.
@Seamus Finn: indeed, very proud of what they achieved.
@Seamus Finn: They bottled it ffs, get a grip
@MartyCharles: Clearly dont understand the term bottling. They absolutely were in the fight but for the bounce of a ball (Sheehan out wide) or some great all black defence (Barrett goal line held up) people would be singing a very different tune.
Hopefully POM stays for another 6 Nations. He should be our next captain.
@Gary O Sullivan: No way, he’s a back row who’s 34, he’ll want to go after the 6 nations and that makes sense. Ryan to be next captain, will be there for next WC
@Andrew Slazenger: i don’t think Ryan will be the captain, maybe a pack leader. He’s played better rugby without the chain around his neck. Ringrose would be my shout
@Gary O Sullivan: Ryan is the next captain, he was missed more than people thought, if you want an example of his influence, the champions cup final turned completely as soon as he went off.
@chris mcdonnell: Shame he’s not had a great tournament with the line-out all over the shop and his hand injury. Been a long few years for Ryan, still not convinced he’s found the form he left behind a few seasons back.
We need to be ruthless now and start building for the next World Cup. If fellas aren’t going to be there in four years time then they shouldn’t be picked in the next couple of Six Nations. It’s cold and calculated but has to be done. No point picking a guy for the next two campaigns but who then retires just before the next World Cup. Thanks Pete but walk away now. Let’s build on the youth.
@Aidan Farrell: Disagree. We’ve already lost Sexton & Earls, we don’t want to lose another 5/6 experienced players for the next 6Ns. Phase the likes of POM, Killer, Murray, Healy etc. out over the next year or two.
@Aidan Farrell: point taken but the young fellows can learn from the likes of Peter. We haven’t many players as hard as him around and he could pass on a few tricks
@Aidan Farrell: Completely agree, we’ve got tonnes of young talent across the provinces next 6 nation is the time to get them in and start gelling.
@Kenjo: completely agree. We can just give up on out bread and butter(6 nations). After all we could very well find ourselves not in a semi next time even after sacrificing the 4 6nations that are inbetween
@Aidan Farrell: I disagree. There should be a gradual phasing out of older players. We can’t afford to have 2 or 3 years of poor 6 Nations by bong all in on youth. Let’s not forget that we, along with the other 3 top-ramked teams in the world, were shafted by being all lumped together in the same side of the draw that was made ridiculously early. The draw for Oz 2027 will be held later as a result. We need to hang onto a top 4 ranking until that draw is made to avoid getting screwed again!
@Karl McGrath: Ok yeah maybe not completely jettisoning the auld fellas but perhaps moving them to the bench to make room for new blood. Imagine a starting pack next year of o’toole, sheenan, porter, ryan, mccarthy, prendergast, doris, baird (or maybe coombes)
@Aidan Farrell: The 6 Nations is the main source of funding for all seniors, U20s, and women’s rugby. So, a top two finish in all of the next four years should be our target. Perhaps a developmental (U25) team could tour, USA, Canada or Argentina during the 2025 Lions.
@Aidan Farrell: completely agree
@Kenjo: seriously go with the younger players unless we have no option. Let the lads off. Pom will limit the likes of Baird and Cronin, Murray will do the same to casey, killer and healy block the likes of loughman etc. Let these come through and claim the shirt.
@chris mcdonnell: Cronin ?
@Andrew Hurley: I’d imagine he means Conan. We’re not going to, nor have we ever discarded our older experienced players after a World Cup cycle. All teams need experience, discarding all of our older players now would be throwing the baby out with the bath water, and won’t happen as the 6Ns is our main source of income and due to the world ranking process for the next World Cup in Oz, 2027.
@Kenjo: I would normally agree with this but seeing as France cleared out it’s experienced players last cycle and started a fresh, I think we should do the same. The current crop of U20s and the group before have won back to back six nations and made it to a WC final. Get them in, have them learn senior international rugby and they should be firing in 4 years.
None of this we must be number 1, autumn champion rubbish. Time to get these guys solid experience rather then a year out from WC.
@D Farrell: but here in lies the problem with Irish rugby, squidge rugby mentioned it as well, the irfu is focused on revenue and winning 6 nations. This means we will never be a top team at WCs. England, France, Oz have all taken the pain of a few years with rocky results to develop a young team.
Time to try something different.
@Aaron Tynan: This has no logic. If England, France and Australia have all taken the short-term pain for success at the next RWC..at least two of them will be disappointed.
@Aaron Tynan: We won 1 6N this cycle, same as last cycle. I think targeting to win 1 this cycle is realistic and doable so may as well aim to win it in 3/4 years as part of our wc preparation with doris, sheenan, crowley, casey, hansen plus the next batch. I doubt we’ll win it next year or year after as it’s probably too soon with a new conductor in charge
@J M: At this point i would trust AF and his group of coaches to know who is at the coal face in terms of increased playing time within the wider 40-60 player group that they brought to NZ last year. Theres some U20′s that will also kick on but the responsibility is with the players to perform for their provinces first and foremost. Nobody should be handed a shirt unless they are tearing up trees in the URC or Heineken Cup. The young guns need to be saying I’m taking player X’s spot and not getting favour due to them being the younger version.
@keith mellon (JoHn SpArTaN): Yeah I agree the ambition and capability has to be shown first, anyway it may be the end of one era but it’s the beginning of another. We’re in good hands with Farrell I hope he stays on anyway
Peter please stay! Managers coaches should/will decide team. Tks to the Irish team for a wonderful journey.
Maybe he can stay on another 4 years so he can get obliterated by Sam Cane in a Quarter Final for a third time?
@Kevin Heaney: So Ireland were obliterated lady Saturday? You obviously have no idea of what you’re talking about, and are one of those sad rugby begrudgers which unfortunately this country is full of.
@Kevin Heaney: He looked pretty shattered on Saturday, too many minutes for the first time across this competition
@J M: *first team
Isn’t it “Great” to see the keyboard warriors out in force again.Pathetic
Marc
@Kevin Heaney: one thing I will say is that those previous comments O’Mahony made to Sam Cane about being an inferior Richie McCaw were always going to come back and bite him. It showed zero class and a total lack of humility, which this Irish team is all about. Cane is now preparing for a very winnable World Cup semi final while O’Mahony is going home to post on Instagram about his lawn. Keep it buttoned in future, Pete.
@marc anders: I think the players did us proud but management have some questions to answer mainly around fitness and resting (team looked flogged physically whereas the all blacks were fit and raring to go) and mindset – no doubt gary keegan has done a good job in that area but they all looked jittery on Saturday, likewise our lineout has been malfunctioning most of the competition, whatever paul o connell was trying to do didn’t work and I cannot understand why more subs weren’t made at 50/60 mins, sexton was obviously having a tough night farrell should’ve rolled the dice with crowley bur sure hindsight is a wonderful thing. Players did great but at times the past 4 years have felt like the goodbye season of the sexton show
Total warrior on the park, would like to see him mentor some of the younger players but not from a starting role, at Munster Tadhg Beirne should be captain as he seems to have the respect of the younger players and is more charismatic than POM. Perhaps theres a point in crushing the 6n as we fell so short in this WC but aside from that it’s about building again, out with the old and lets see these young lads get a cut, there are heaps of potentially world class players across the provinces that we’ll never know about until they get a cut. No surprise to see a large portion of superstar ABs move on after this, mostly a few years younger than Pete.
@Thesaltyurchin: Those AB’s are chasing the dollars in Japan for a couple of years and will then come back to NZ super rugby. Small window for some of these guys to make a living and when they are throwing million dollar contracts at you its hard to turn down, France tried to do same with some of our guys and and i think Henderson got a contract offer from Japan or France. Our tax rebate these guys for staying here for 10 years get must help them get some financial parity with the mega dollars on offer abroad, they also get much better management from the IRFU in terms of health and welfare and dont get pounded week in week out by clubs sweating their assets.
I hope were planning to have the current/recent group of U20 grand slam winners of last 3/4 years integrated into the next world cup group. Lots of forward talent, some promising half backs and wingers that we need to kick on and push this group forward again. Guys that are 19/20 now winning slams and getting to U20 WC finals need to be challenging the 30 somethings in this group and raising the bar again.
No worries one defeat in 18 still a great fantastic side