O’Connell available but may not ‘do 80’

Paul O’Connell will be available to face Samoa on Saturday but doubts remains over the lock’s ability to last the 80 minutes of his first Ireland Test in 19 months.

O’Connell, 34, who has not worn the green jersey since March 2012, is on the way back from a calf injury that has kept him sidelined for the past two weeks. He returned to training on Monday, having played no part in last week’s sessions under new head coach Joe Schmidt and having come through yesterday’s session, forwards coach John Plumtree declared the captaincy candidate available for the first game of the Guinness Series this weekend, albeit with reservations.

“It was good to see Paul. He had a pretty light week last week in camp and over the weekend his calf has got better and he had a good session, we reduced his running but increased his intensity yesterday and he was training really well, and today as well,” Plumtree said.