O’Connell wary of danger posed by ‘motivated’ Welsh

WE’VE become almost inured to it at this stage, the banner headlines, the universal praise. “Another towering display from Paul O’Connell,” leads off one report; “A virtuoso performance from O’Connell” echoes another, with such regularity and to such an extent that you begin to wonder if the man is human at all, if perhaps the bone and sinew,the flesh and blood has been replaced with some sort of bionic mass.

It came as something of a surprise, then, to see the man himself confined to the sidelines in UL yesterday as the Munster squad went through its high-tempo paces in the lead-up to this weekend’s Heineken Cup quarter-final against the Ospreys in Thomond Park. In anxious tone, supporters watching the training whispered up and down the sideline — what’s wrong with O’Connell? It’s the hip, lads, a flesh-and-bone hip, so the man is indeed mortal. “It’s not too bad,” he explained afterwards. “Just a bang I got in the game (win over Leinster) last Saturday. I had hoped to train today but felt a bit sore last evening — hopefully it’s nothing to worry about.”

There will be a few people offering an ‘Amen’ to that little prayer in the next couple of days, because the challenge presented by this Ospreys side is multi-pronged.