‘We will beat the All Blacks’

Paul O’Connell was many thousands of miles away when Ireland came within inches of beating New Zealand for the first time and seven days later when the All Blacks scored their biggest ever win over the Irish.

A knee injury that still hasn’t healed entirely meant the Munster captain missed the tour but he was probably more disappointed than the players involved at how those games developed.

“If anything, I wanted to be there more for the third Test,” he claimed. “You feel you’ve let them down by not being there. I’ve been in dressing rooms like that before and I’d say they were in a fairly tough place. Even though you don’t see it at the time, a lot of good things can come from bad days like that.

“Obviously, the second Test was very disappointing because I think we were good enough to win it. The penalty decision at that scrum was very frustrating. Maybe we did infringe the scrum but I don’t think it was a big enough infringement to decide the game. It gave them a massive lift.

“It could even have been a penalty to Ireland. You see, this is the thing with the scrum. You could give three penalties either way. But I thought we played great and, no, I think we will beat them. We’re getting stronger and stronger in Ireland. The provinces are driving each other on to higher and higher levels and that’s going to help the national team.

“We need to keep playing these teams. It’s one of the things Clive Woodward did when he was with England, he played the Southern Hemisphere countries as often as they could and it’s going to be great for Argentina to be in with them from now on.”

Having missed out on the New Zealand trip, O’Connell returned to training much earlier than has been the case for many years. Unfortunately, though, the damage to his medial knee ligament hasn’t cleared up as quickly as he hoped although he is confident of being available for Munster’s pre-season games next month.

“I thought I’d be further down the track by now,” he admitted.

“When I didn’t go to New Zealand, I said I’d definitely be back fully fit for pre-season, but I wasn’t. I’m back doing running and will be fully back into it next week although I haven’t the hard work and the hard slog done like some of the boys.”

The arrival of Rob Penney and Simon Mannix has sent a massive buzz to every member of the Munster squad and O’Connell is no exception.

“It’s been very exciting,” he agreed. “Before Rob and Simon arrived, there was some great skill development run by Anthony Foley and Ian Costello and guys really enjoyed that. Rob and Simon came in and I suppose they were a breath of fresh air. We had a few great years with Tony [McGahan] but the change has been nice as well.

“Rob has been really positive, an interesting guy with interesting ideas about the game. It’s something different and something different is exciting for guys. Obviously, a lot of players have moved on so you have a lot of really young and enthusiastic guys whose work ethic and attitude are fantastic. It’s a great place to be and hopefully it will be like that once the matches start.

“We won’t be favourites for the Heineken Cup but I like the way pre-season is going, I like the new coaches, I like the attitude of the guys on the training field and I like the new players who have come in so I think it’s an exciting time.”

Yesterday’s news that Munster will meet Racing Metro at Stade de France in the forthcoming Heineken Cup and there is a good chance that Wembley Stadium will be the venue for the away game against Saracens has been warmly greeted by O’Connell, even if he does sound a warning note.

“They’re not bringing the game to Stade to play in front of a Munster crowd,” he said.

“I’m sure they have a plan to market it well and make it a real cauldron.”