A 53-year-old Ivan Yates could have been named in the Lions backline and they still would’ve hammered Australia
IN CONVERSATION WITH the returning Newstalk broadcaster, the second row didn’t hold much truck with the theory that Warren Gatland was vindicated in selected Jon Davies over Brian O’Driscoll in the deciding third Test.
That win was all down to the forwards, he says.
“If you’re in the pack and you’re getting up after every scrum with a penalty against you and you’re 19-3 down in the first half when not a whole lot has happened, it’s completely demoralising.
“I think you [at Yates] could have probably played in that back line and the score would have been similar.”
He watched Munster’s semi-final defeat to Clermont again last night
Cleaning up his Sky planner, yet more proof that he’s a better man than us.
Pre-season training is like Christmas for him
His broken arm is fully healed, but O’Connell is still at least three weeks from playing competitively… and he’s absolutely loving it.
“We’re in pre-season now and it’s probably one of my favourite parts of the year. Just the volume of work you get to do, you get to train hard and it gives you a great buzz and a great feeling.”
He adds that the biggest improvement he’s made down the years is his discipline off the field ‘for the 20 hours you’re not training.’
“It’s easy to go into the gym and kill yourself for an hour. But it’s not easy to do all the other simple things and that’s something I’ve gotten a lot better at.”
ROG was part of the ‘REALLY old guard’
Hopefully O’Connell is putting himself and Donncha O’Callaghan among the ‘old guard’, but he seemed to leave a cheeky late shoulder for Ronan O’Gara:
“I suppose ROG is the last of the really old guard to go from the teams that would have played back in 1998-99…”
Naturally, though, he lavished praise on the retired hero of Munster Rugby in the same breath.
“He’s a big loss in terms of his personality, in terms of him being the one constant over the last 10 or 12 years.”
Warren Gatland and Declan Kidney have been his favourite coaches to work for
Undoubtedly, O’Connell was relieved when he realised he wasn’t being asked to rank his coaches down the years.
The men he says stand out from the rest were Kidney – “always does the right thing by the player” – and Gatland – ‘high-tempo training, short meetings. one chance to get it right’.
