O’Connell could be suspended
O'Connell, 24 tomorrow, is facing the worst possible birthday present after Namibian coach Dave Waterstone blasted the second-row's "unsavoury" second-half attack on Archie Graham.
Within the next 24 hours an independent citing commissioner will have to decide whether to haul O'Connell in front of a three-man disciplinary panel to answer stamping allegations.
Waterstone has already indicated his belief that O'Connell will face sanctions, and if he is proved correct, the Munster forward is facing a recommended four-week suspension, which would effectively rule him out of the tournament.
The citing of O'Connell marred Ireland's 64-7 victory over Namibia at Aussie Stadium on Saturday to move above Australia to the top of Pool A.
The incident occurred with the last quarter in full swing with the Irish pouring forward in search of try number nine when the Irish forward came into contact with Graham in the middle of a maul driving towards the Namibian goal line.
"We're citing him but I understand the match commissioner, that august body of people that watch it on TV, have already noted the incident," Namibian coach Dave Waterstone confirmed later.
"I explained to Eddie O'Sullivan that we normally don't cite when we lose but I regard the incident of such a magnitude that we will be doing that."
Unsurprisingly, his Irish counterpart took the polar opposite view, his eyebrows arching in a manner that perfectly conveyed his apparent surprise over an incident which he declared to be innocuous. "We have legal back-up if we need it but that is looking too far ahead just now," said O'Sullivan.
"There is a process to be gone through here and we haven't heard anything formal as yet.
"I'm a bit surprised by it," O'Sullivan added after the African's press conference at Aussie Stadium. "The incident at the time looked reasonably innocuous, although it was flagged. Having said that, both the touch judge and the referee decided it was a penalty but not even a yellow card.
"My memory of it was it was a maul upfield and Paul slipped up at the front of the maul with the ball in his hands and his back to the opposition line. The player went under him and he stumbled over him and almost lost his footing.
"So, I think he tried to get over the player. In doing that, he may have stood on him, but I didn't see any malice in it and I think if there was, the referee and the touch judge would have been harder on him," he added.
O'Connell was captured on the referee's microphone protesting that he hadn't seen the Namibian under him at the time, a claim backed up by O'Sullivan. Waterstone, however, had a different take again on it all.
"Well, maybe he's Mr Magoo because he went back to step on him a second time," the Kiwi deadpanned. "So, he's obviously very thorough or he's joined the braille club."
He was expressly critical of referee Andrew Cole's handing of the encounter. "If you are a referee and you want the big appointments you have to suck up to the top nations. That is the way it is done."
If O'Connell does end up being banned, Ireland are facing a potential second-row crisis for their vital encounter with Argentina in Adelaide next weekend.
Ulster's Gary Longwell has not played a single minute so far as he struggles to overcome a calf strain, which means Ireland could go into the Pumas encounter with just two specialist locks, including Donnacha O'Callaghan who has yet to start a game for his country.
The O'Connell controversy aside, it was pretty much a good day for the Irish who ran in 10 tries in what was their biggest ever World Cup win, under extremely unfavourable conditions. "I have to say I'm very happy with it," O'Sullivan admitted. "We haven't played in those conditions since Lansdowne Road in the autumn.
"It was incessant rain there and I was a bit concerned when the rain came in that conditions would deteriorate and that the game would get sloppy and messy. It certainly would have levelled the playing field in terms of us getting off to a good start, playing well and getting the ball to hands. It wasn't a day for that.
"We started in a very focused way and we got our early scores on the board. By and large, we kept our focus.
"If we were guilty of anything it was perhaps of forcing the game a couple of times when we probably should have been putting the ball behind them. I think we scored most times we got into their 22 but ten tries in those conditions is a pretty good days work. The bedrock of that was the way the pack played."
O'Sullivan may have beamed over his pack's performance but Waterston, when pressed on the subject, claimed his boys had taken more punishment against the Argentinians last week a view backed up by his captain Sean Furter.
"If you were honest with (our) pack before they tired, certainly the Argentinians were harder, more ruthless.
"I'm not so sure from number ten onwards. I would say that in this World Cup the Irish have been slow starters compared to a lot of other sides.
"Perhaps that's a good thing. It's pretty hard because we think we've improved even though it doesn't show on the scoreline, but I would say the Argentine forwards seem a lot harder and lot more positive."
Under the circumstances though, O'Sullivan had reason enough to be happy. Ireland left their base in Terrigal with one game plan based on the glorious day it was then.
Ten minutes before kick-off and that was replaced with another to allow for the slippery conditions. Quick ruck ball was out and punishing mauls were in.
"There wasn't mush else you could do with the ball under the circumstances," O'Sullivan pointed out. "Even a few times there were overlaps and we tried to execute them which was almost impossible. Skip passes were out of the question. It was old-fashioned Munster Cup rugby, stick it up your shirt and drive it on."
So. Two down, two to go. In reality however, the World Cup starts here for Ireland after the pair of training runs against Romania and Namibia.
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