Six Nations, Paul O'Connell interview: Gerry Thornley talks to a player who sets the standards by his deeds rather than his words
Barely half an hour into his Test debut against Wales three years ago, with a try under his belt for good measure about five minutes beforehand, Paul O'Connell was in a daze. With Ireland already 18-0 ahead, he looked up at what he thought was the scoreboard. How come it was reading 14-30?
Mick Galwey, Irish captain on the day, recalls: "I'd made a lineout call but Paul was looking at the clock and thought it was the scoreboard. He couldn't understand it. He'd had a right clatter when tackling Craig Quinnell, not the prettiest fella to crash into. But I suppose when you've learned your trade in Greenfields (Young Munster) you don't hold back. I said to him 'you're in trouble Paul aren't you?'
"He said: 'damn it, I am. I'm bollixed. I'm getting outta here.' I said 'you can't do that in the middle of a Test match,' but he just walked off the pitch and then all the way around to the dressingrooms on the other side.
"He didn't know where he was or who he was. But he knows who he is and where he is now," adds Galwey, "and he knows where he's going. We all know what a great player he is, and he handles himself really well too. I thought I knew a bit about captaincy but I was taken aback by him last week. He looked like an old pro, just the way he walked and the way he played. He wasn't cocky, but there was a confidence and purpose in his stride."
O'Connell has had little captaincy experience, but he is as Ronan O'Gara stresses, and Galwey confirms, a natural leader on the pitch; a player who sets the standards by deed more than word of mouth.
He attributes this in part to his position in the lineout, "and I'm lucky in that I've had a few experienced heads around to help me along. You get there and the next minute you realise you're one of the leaders and the next minute you're asked to captain the team. It's been swift but it's been very enjoyable, and it's a role I enjoy.
"In the pack, anyway, it's a handy enough job because there's so much experience there already. Mal (Malcolm O'Kelly) wouldn't be a big talker but when he chooses to talk it always makes sense and people listen. Hayes the same, you've Reggie (Corrigan) and Munch (Shane Byrne) who've been around for years and know every trick in the book. And Axel (Anthony Foley), everyone knows Axel, the brains behind everything. Simon Easterby is captain of Llanelli and wouldn't say too much but when he does it's always relevant, it's always good."
Even the newish kid on the block, Johnny "O'Concrete" O'Connor "pipes in sometimes and it's all good. You want new voices."
With Brian O'Driscoll's return, O'Connell is back in the trenches this week but he'll still be one of the leaders, still drawing the lines in the sand.
"It suits me fine. He's the captain of the team, he's the leader in everything he does. When he's in there I've no problem taking a back seat to him. He's a serious bit of stuff as captain and leader on the pitch."
The week prior to his debut O'Connell had been outstanding in Munster's European Cup quarter-final win over Stade Francais, so good that he won the man-of-the-match award. In his televised post-match interview, no matter the question, the answer from the apparently starry-eyed 22-year-old was always the same: "unreal", intermingled with "unreal". Even from the vantage point of occasional meetings or interviews, the change in his demeanour since then has been striking. He's less starry eyed, and a good deal more voluble nowadays.
He's part of the new breed alright, hugely talented and born to play rugby assuredly, but also high achieving and ferociously competitive. He attributes this to younger brother syndrome. His older siblings, Justin and Marcus, also played a wide variety of sports, all of them benefiting from an ample garden at their home in Drombana outside Limerick and the encouragement of their dad Mick, a junior player with Sunday's Well and Young Munster.
"You see I had a brother a year and nine months older than me. I couldn't handle losing to him so I knew if I was keeping up with him when I walked out the door and took on guys my own age I'd do well. And Limerick is like that as well. Everything in Limerick is sports, which is great."
Not specialising in one sport at an early age is a motto he swears by. "When you look at any sport, most of them are all about hand-eye co-ordination, balance and having a cool head, being able to handle things. Swimming was all non-stop training, dedication; I suppose I took that from it. Golf, basketball, hurling, football, it all helps. You're learning different things from different coaches. It all helps."
The way O'Connell recounts, his career has been postmarked with good luck, notably an Irish schools' trial. Whereas Nicky O'Connor from Clongowes and Rob McGrath from CBC were lifting him by the legs, his opposing lifters had adapted to the new rules and were still lifting by the shorts. So through no great lineout prowess of his own, he'll have you believe, O'Connell cleaned up and broke into the Irish schools' team on the back of it and later the IRFU Academy.
A couple of AIL seasons with Young Munster hardened an already hard edge, and breaking into a Munster pack of gnarled and grizzled warhorses was more evidence of his lucky timing. This is typical of him. Take his seminal try against the Scots a fortnight ago. O'Connell barrels through Andy Parks, then takes three more Scots with him over the line. But he tells it thus.
"I scored a try purely because Johnny O'Connor and Mal had done a great pick and go, and I was running at an outhalf instead of a forward. You could run the same lines the next week, not come near the ball and the heading will be O'Connell is ineffective in the loose. But I think the whole pack picked it up last week."
Complementing this level-headed attitude is a fierce competitive streak, along with a devotion and work ethic which would have been partially fostered by his early dedication to other sports, especially swimming. This entailed his father taking him to the pool at 5.30am, back home by 8am and heading to school three times a week with smelling of chlorine.
He even gave up rugby for a few years before returning to it at 16 with Ard Scoil Rís. So, when later inculcated into the IRFU Academy, he had no bother gorging on dietary regimes, weight programmes and the like.
He rooms with Foley mostly, and is always looking to learn. Galwey remembers him as "a sponge for information" and O'Gara is astonished by O'Connell's memory for the slightest details, even from training sessions years ago. It's also a handy source of ammunition for O'Connell's frequent line in sarcastic, dry wit. "When you come on the scene at 21 or 22, you might technically be better than a fella of 33 or 34, but you have to listen to players who've been there," says O'Connell. "You've got to give those guys respect. You also pick up experience playing the big games in Europe or the Celtic League. It's all experience all the time and that helped last week but the other thing about last week was that the forwards put in a bad performance against Italy and it was never going to happen twice in a row. If Rala (the baggage master) had been captain it was never going to happen. I might have gotten the plaudits but it was a fairly easy job."
He's intrigued by the old days, and can badger Galwey, Peter Clohessy or whoever for anecdotal evidence of previous excesses. There's a part of him that almost regrets missing out. Only a small part mind. "The craic they had was unbelievable, but at the same time sometimes they were hockeyed. I suppose because I can't relate to it I find it so funny, drinking pints the night before games and absolutely no training."
Every game offers a new challenge for a player who would be perhaps the least inclined to do cartwheels after last season's Triple Crown.
"Playing any of the top five, or even the top eight, are the main ones. England, France, the three southern hemisphere, Wales at the moment; they're the ones you want to play and win. I've only beaten two of the top five, South Africa and England. I've never been on a team that beat France, Australia or New Zealand yet. When you retire you want to have them all ticked off anyway, and the more times the better. The England game is the same as any top five game."
He's expecting to encounter a wounded animal tomorrow. "Big time. I'm sure they'll be fed plenty of articles on myself and Mal over the last few weeks. We've no doubt that, it will be an unbelievably tough encounter up front and all over the park."
But he wouldn't want it any other way.
