Why O’Connell shouldn’t travel to New Zealand

Tomorrow morning the Irish squad board a plane in London for yet another long haul flight as they return to the home of the 2011 World Cup and the scene of Ireland’s international highlight of the season — Eden Park, Auckland.

On Saturday week, Ireland engage the new world champions New Zealand in the first of three Tests before bringing the curtain down on an exhaustive season that began with a World Cup warm-up game against Scotland in Murrayfield on Aug 6.

There have been many highs and a few low points since that opening defeat in Edinburgh at both provincial and international level and those players not charged with attempting to secure that elusive first win over New Zealand at Test level are just starting a well-earned four-week break from the game before the rigours of pre-season training kick in and the grind starts all over again.