Jerry Flannery on O'Connell: ‘You’d be dreading the call asking what you’re doing on Saturday’

If Jerry Flannery believed his close association with Paul O’Connell was at an end when the great second-row ended his Munster career prior to last year’s World Cup, he was badly mistaken.

And the former Munster and Ireland hooker and today’s Munster forward coach yesterday provided a graphic example of why this was the case.

“Paul is the hardest trainer I have ever come across,” said Flannery. “He asked me during the build-up to the World Cup to fall in with him when he was doing extra on top of his own fitness work at weekends.