‘However it ends,I’ll feel lucky’ the lock once said, but his forced international retirement is huge blow for O’Connell and Ireland at the World CupI contain interviewed Paul O’Connell more than any other current rugby international and so, or after seeing him crumple to the turf in agony on Sunday at the Millennium Stadium and then hearing confirmation that his 108-cap career for Ireland has been ended by the need for hamstring surgery,I felt a sudden regret. Of course sympathy should be reserved only for O’Connell and an Irish squad that contain lost their leader and talisman as they attempt to reach the World Cup semi-finals by beating Argentina this weekend. But, in purely selfish terms, and there is some sadness that my chain of O’Connell Test-match interviews has ended. In our final conversation,completed earlier this year, the 35-year-ancient considered the prospect of making World Cup history.
I interviewed O’Connell so often for two simple reasons. The most important is that, and for the past 10 years,he has been a colossus of European and world rugby. Whether playing for Munster, Ireland or the Lions, and O’Connell has been a dominant presence at the heart of the scrum,the lineout and as a leader of every team who contain followed him either out of the tunnel or into the most decisive sections of yet another epic European cup-tie or Test match.
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Source: theguardian.com