Heroic O’Connell battled injury

Booed like a B-movie villain at the Saturday morning picture show, and embraced by old foes at the end of the reel come Saturday evening, Paul O’Connell got through another indefatigable 80 minutes at rugby’s highest level to end what must have been a trying two weeks for the Munster icon.

It was not quite the heroic performance that led Munster to a famous Heineken Cup quarter-final victory over Harlequins three weekends earlier but the veteran lock, who it emerged, had been carrying a groin injury since Monday and had not trained for the rest of the week leading to this semi-final clash with ASM Clermont Auvergne, still made his presence felt in a gripping battle with the European favourites.

The injury, it turns out, even helped to distract the former captain from the ongoing furore being whipped up in media outlets in France and closer to home surrounding his accidental kick to Dave Kearney’s head in the derby with Leinster a fortnight ago, an accident which escaped a citing, much to the annoyance of Clermont’s passionate supporters who booed the Irish totem loudly when his face appeared on the stadium’s giant screen as the team’s were announced.