O’Connell aims to end on high

PAUL O’CONNELL will captain Ireland against England tomorrow looking to end the frustrations of three World Cup warm-up defeats in a row.

Martin Johnson’s side return to the Aviva Stadium five months on from the crumbling of their Grand Slam ambitions as Ireland finally clicked into gear to bring the Six Nations to a rousing climax.

The start to the current campaign has been quite a comedown in comparison and O’Connell shared supporters’ concerns.

“Yeah, it is frustrating and I wouldn’t have all the answers as to why it has been like that,” O’Connell said. “I suppose it came at the end of the competition.

“I think we’re a very good side and I think we didn’t perform in the Six Nations this year as well as we could have and as well as we should have.

“By the time we reached the end of the tournament, we had been disappointed with how we had been performing and a lot of it manifested itself in that game [against England].

“I think that’s where we need to be at and that’s where we should be at.”

O’Connell said there were mitigating circumstances for the drop in performance levels.

“Why haven’t we been there since that? Probably it’s part of the World Cup build-up, certainly we’re trying to set aside the World Cup and treat these games as Test matches but maybe that’s a little bit hard as well.

“There’s been a few combinations playing together that haven’t or wouldn’t have played together like they would have during the Six Nations.”