O’Connell gets hero’s welcome at Stradey Park

PAUL O’CONNELL had a delightful surprise when he stepped off the Munster bus in Stradey Park last evening.

Though the second-row star is recovering from the ankle injury sustained against the Ospreys on Friday, he stayed on in Wales with the rest of the party and was greeted at Stradey by 150 youngsters and their mentors from the Neyland club 50 miles away in Pembrokeshire. Neyland chairman Peter Davies, led the delegation.

“Two years ago, we went over to Young Munster in Limerick with our U15 side and Paul very kindly drove up from Cork where he was preparing for a Heineken Cup semi-final against Wasps to meet our young fellows”, he explained. “We were delighted with that and thought it a remarkable gesture at such an important time and so a few weeks ago, we came up to Llanelli to meet him again only for the game to be called off. But Paul stood out in the pouring rain and signed jerseys, programmes, autograph books, everything, for 50 or 60 of our kids. He’s a real gentleman and so we formed the Paul O’Connell Welsh fan club. We have 150 members and they’re all here tonight.”