O’Connell walks tall among giants

NO ARGUMENTS please. Paul O’Connell’s remarkable level of performance and consistency underlines his claim on the title of best second-row forward on the planet.

For the second week in a row, he took a crucial Heineken Cup tie by the scruff of the neck in Montauban yesterday and led his side to a big win over very decent opposition. They are now three matches away from joining Leicester Tigers as the only side to retain the trophy and O’Connell was a hugely influential figure as Montauban were put to the sword.

“It’s always easy to be at a hundred per cent when everything isn’t on the line and because that wasn’t the case today, I thought this was a very good performance,” he maintained. “After all the negative kind of press we had got, it was an easy week for us to be able to play against Sale. This week, was a lot different, there was the upset of not playing on Saturday and apart from the first ten minutes, for the boys to go out and put in such a ruthless and professional performance was top-class and a strong sign of the mentality of the squad.”