O’Connell highlights importance of pre-season

Paul O’Connell kept his audience spellbound at the University of Limerick this week.

No, he wasn’t regaling us with tales from episodes in the colours of Young Munster, Munster, Ireland and the Lions. Nothing like that.

Instead, he was on what has now become a hobbyhorse for the vast majority of rugby’s leading players — how they can get the best out of their pre-season to be fully ready when the action gets going in earnest in the autumn.