THE INITIAL HYPE over his arrival in early 2021 was understandable but really it’s now that there should be more hysteria about Paul O’Connell’s involvement with Ireland.
Each of Andy Farrell’s four assistant coaches has an important role, yet it’s ultra-clear that O’Connell is his number two and right-hand man.
O’Connell is officially the forwards coach but his influence extends to Ireland’s excellent breakdown work and, you sense, quite a lot more. It’s no exaggeration to say the 43-year-old is a big reason why Farrell’s team are going so well.
The detail-obsessed O’Connell is extremely well-regarded by the Irish players. Plenty of that is based on his status as a legendary player, sure, but that aura wouldn’t last long unless O’Connell had the coaching acumen to maintain their respect. Professional players have viciously high standards when it comes to coaches.
In that sense, it’s a match made in heaven. O’Connell has expectations of this Irish team that befit someone who was one of the best players ever. So when he’s asked how he thinks this current Ireland forward pack is going, there’s no sense of contentment.
Even after three bonus-point wins from three in the Six Nations so far, O’Connell wants much more against Scotland and England as they look to close out a Grand Slam.
“It’s been a mixture, I think, a mixture,” he says of the Irish forwards.
“I think we have been good sometimes. Both as a pack and individually, we have been good sometimes.
“I don’t think for the last two weeks that ‘sometimes’ will be good enough. And that’s the challenge we have as individuals and as units – scrum, lineout, lineout maul, lineout maul attack.
“We can’t be ‘sometimes players’ over the next two weeks.”
Every time O’Connell speaks even in a media setting, you get a hint of the power his presentations and chats with players must carry. There is clarity and precision in his words, most of which make you really think.
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The scale of his obsession with improvement is underlined by how many things he, Farrell, and the players reckon Ireland can be better at.
O'Connell is Farrell's right-hand man. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
“We pay attention to getting better,” he says. “It’s funny, Andy said about the France game, if you watch the France game on TV and you just sit down and you just watch it, it’s amazing. It’s great to watch and you feel great about Ireland.
“But when you’re a coach and you watch it 10 times, you see 400 things you need to fix that you get really excited about how much better we can be.
“That’s the good thing about our group, we review a lot and the players take a lot of ownership in terms of reviewing, and they see how much more we need to do.”
Ireland got through a fair bit of work in the last two days, finishing their short camp with a high-tempo training session against the Ireland U20s yesterday, and are now into four nights in their own beds before they reconvene on Monday evening.
O’Connell himself will probably have to try hard to switch off from the job even just briefly, but he stresses that Ireland’s players need this time away from camp. He picks it out as one of the lessons he learned from being involved in campaigns like the 2009 Grand Slam success when he was playing.
“I think maybe back then we were, you know, you’re afraid to take time off or you’re afraid to take brain time off,” recalls O’Connell.
“One of the biggest things about being fresh is being able to switch off when the chance comes.
“I think we probably weren’t very good at taking our time off back in the day. We felt we had to be training more than anyone else or doing more than anyone else. I don’t think that’s the right thing when it comes to working.
“You’ve got to work hard, which our boys always do, but it’s important to take the time off so that you can be fresh towards the end of the tournament as well.”
O'Connell with Josh van der Flier and Andrew Porter. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
O’Connell says that because these Irish players are so conscientious about improving, they don’t have to have any panicked sense of needing to cram for Scotland and England. They already have much of the work done.
“A lot of them go on holidays to go to places where the gym is, they pick their holiday resort based on what the gym is like,” says O’Connell.
“They all have Sportscode [analysis software] on their iPads.
“These guys aren’t cramming these last few weeks, they’re in a good place.”
The main reason O’Connell wants to see refreshed players pitching up on Monday is that he believes Gregor Townsend’s Scotland will be so hard to beat in Edinburgh next Sunday.
The Scots have impressed in his Six Nations, beating England and Wales before performing well in defeat to France in Paris last time out.
O’Connell expects a ferocious challenge. He and Ireland wouldn’t want it any other way.
“It’s a massive game, it’s not a dangerous game. It’s a massive game,” reiterates O’Connell.
“If we come out of there with a one-point win, it will be brilliant for us. These are the games we want. It’s why we played with the roof closed in the Millennium Stadium [against Wales last month], it’s why we were trying to get the Maori games and took on that five-game tour [in New Zealand].
“You want it hard. The harder it is, the better. It’s one of the reasons I was happy Atonio wasn’t sent off in the French game [for his high tackle on Rob Herring] because you want it to be as hard as possible so that we learn as much as we can about ourselves.
“Murrayfield is a really tough place to go and more so now with the confidence that the Scottish players have. Their best players are playing really well. They’ve real belief in what they’re doing.
“It’s going to be incredibly tough for us, but it’s the challenge that you want.”
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'The harder it is, the better... I was happy Atonio wasn’t sent off'
LAST UPDATE | 3 Mar 2023
THE INITIAL HYPE over his arrival in early 2021 was understandable but really it’s now that there should be more hysteria about Paul O’Connell’s involvement with Ireland.
Each of Andy Farrell’s four assistant coaches has an important role, yet it’s ultra-clear that O’Connell is his number two and right-hand man.
O’Connell is officially the forwards coach but his influence extends to Ireland’s excellent breakdown work and, you sense, quite a lot more. It’s no exaggeration to say the 43-year-old is a big reason why Farrell’s team are going so well.
The detail-obsessed O’Connell is extremely well-regarded by the Irish players. Plenty of that is based on his status as a legendary player, sure, but that aura wouldn’t last long unless O’Connell had the coaching acumen to maintain their respect. Professional players have viciously high standards when it comes to coaches.
In that sense, it’s a match made in heaven. O’Connell has expectations of this Irish team that befit someone who was one of the best players ever. So when he’s asked how he thinks this current Ireland forward pack is going, there’s no sense of contentment.
Even after three bonus-point wins from three in the Six Nations so far, O’Connell wants much more against Scotland and England as they look to close out a Grand Slam.
“It’s been a mixture, I think, a mixture,” he says of the Irish forwards.
“I think we have been good sometimes. Both as a pack and individually, we have been good sometimes.
“I don’t think for the last two weeks that ‘sometimes’ will be good enough. And that’s the challenge we have as individuals and as units – scrum, lineout, lineout maul, lineout maul attack.
“We can’t be ‘sometimes players’ over the next two weeks.”
Every time O’Connell speaks even in a media setting, you get a hint of the power his presentations and chats with players must carry. There is clarity and precision in his words, most of which make you really think.
The scale of his obsession with improvement is underlined by how many things he, Farrell, and the players reckon Ireland can be better at.
“We pay attention to getting better,” he says. “It’s funny, Andy said about the France game, if you watch the France game on TV and you just sit down and you just watch it, it’s amazing. It’s great to watch and you feel great about Ireland.
“But when you’re a coach and you watch it 10 times, you see 400 things you need to fix that you get really excited about how much better we can be.
“That’s the good thing about our group, we review a lot and the players take a lot of ownership in terms of reviewing, and they see how much more we need to do.”
Ireland got through a fair bit of work in the last two days, finishing their short camp with a high-tempo training session against the Ireland U20s yesterday, and are now into four nights in their own beds before they reconvene on Monday evening.
O’Connell himself will probably have to try hard to switch off from the job even just briefly, but he stresses that Ireland’s players need this time away from camp. He picks it out as one of the lessons he learned from being involved in campaigns like the 2009 Grand Slam success when he was playing.
“I think maybe back then we were, you know, you’re afraid to take time off or you’re afraid to take brain time off,” recalls O’Connell.
“One of the biggest things about being fresh is being able to switch off when the chance comes.
“I think we probably weren’t very good at taking our time off back in the day. We felt we had to be training more than anyone else or doing more than anyone else. I don’t think that’s the right thing when it comes to working.
“You’ve got to work hard, which our boys always do, but it’s important to take the time off so that you can be fresh towards the end of the tournament as well.”
O’Connell says that because these Irish players are so conscientious about improving, they don’t have to have any panicked sense of needing to cram for Scotland and England. They already have much of the work done.
“A lot of them go on holidays to go to places where the gym is, they pick their holiday resort based on what the gym is like,” says O’Connell.
“They all have Sportscode [analysis software] on their iPads.
“These guys aren’t cramming these last few weeks, they’re in a good place.”
The main reason O’Connell wants to see refreshed players pitching up on Monday is that he believes Gregor Townsend’s Scotland will be so hard to beat in Edinburgh next Sunday.
The Scots have impressed in his Six Nations, beating England and Wales before performing well in defeat to France in Paris last time out.
O’Connell expects a ferocious challenge. He and Ireland wouldn’t want it any other way.
“It’s a massive game, it’s not a dangerous game. It’s a massive game,” reiterates O’Connell.
“If we come out of there with a one-point win, it will be brilliant for us. These are the games we want. It’s why we played with the roof closed in the Millennium Stadium [against Wales last month], it’s why we were trying to get the Maori games and took on that five-game tour [in New Zealand].
“You want it hard. The harder it is, the better. It’s one of the reasons I was happy Atonio wasn’t sent off in the French game [for his high tackle on Rob Herring] because you want it to be as hard as possible so that we learn as much as we can about ourselves.
“Murrayfield is a really tough place to go and more so now with the confidence that the Scottish players have. Their best players are playing really well. They’ve real belief in what they’re doing.
“It’s going to be incredibly tough for us, but it’s the challenge that you want.”
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Six Nations forwards Ireland Paulie poc Scotland standards