Louise Galvin: In life, as in sport, we all crave positive feedback

Growing up I wanted to digest anything about sport that I could, from watching games live and on tv, reading the daily paper from back to front and of course tearing into the most recent sporting autobiography to hit the shelves, says Louise Galvin. Over the years, some of the latter have left me a little dissatisfied on reaching their conclusion.

Quite often I found they were laden down with stories of mischief and changing room practical jokes, a diary of wins and losses usually with respectful accounts of their foes and basically not enough insight.

Not enough meat in the sandwich for an up-and-coming athlete. On a recommendation, I did read Paul O’Connell’s book recently and was pleasantly surprised at its content.