O’Connell glad to be back in the engine room

FOR a while there, at the beginning of the year, it wasn’t looking good for Munster captain Paul O’Connell. A long-standing back injury came at him again, then again, the dreaded prospect of the surgeon’s knife.

Comebacks were attempted, with Young Munster, with Munster A, progress looked good, then would come another setback. Finally, however, and thankfully for Munster and Irish rugby fans, thankfully also for himself, it all came good for Paul and in the final few weeks of the Six Nations, he played a full part, has now played himself back to full match fitness.

“The body is fine,” he reported this week, at the launch of the three-day Anthony Foley Testimonial weekend at the end of May; “Four 80-minute games in a row now in the last few weeks, it’s been great to get through that. Feels good, hopefully it will continue.”