Paul O’Connell fears decline of AIL has hit Munster hardest

Paul O’Connell insists the decline of the Ulster Bank League is at the heart of Munster’s failure to win a trophy in five years.

The former Ireland and Munster captain was speaking at the Momentum Summit at Aviva Stadium yesterday and he has no doubts the province’s European title successes in 2006 and 2008 stemmed from the heydays of the All-Ireland League.

“That team was created in the AIL and [in the past] the AIL in Limerick and Cork was the be all and end all. Being in an AIL team in Limerick, it gave you incredible status, the same as playing for the Kilkenny hurling team,” said O’Connell.

“There’s all talk about academies in Ireland with Leinster Rugby and Munster Rugby and what it produces, but the AIL was the most phenomenal academy. Munster ended up with seven or eight strong senior clubs and they were the academies that produced teak tough players.

“Professional rugby has had an impact on club rugby and that’s had a knock-on effect. Leinster get players from schools, we got our players from the AIL… the status of the AIL has gone and it’s affected Munster and they need to rethink about how we produce players.”

The man who played on three Lions tours also revealed he thought of retiring from rugby shortly after he returned from a pelvic infection that cost him almost a year of playing time.

“We’d a game in 2010 against Leinster and I had a small injury and I took an anti- inflammatory injection to get me right for the game two weeks later. I got an infection and ended up being out for about eight months and I lost 10 kilos. Afterwards, I ended up with two really bad knees. I couldn’t train the way I needed to. I went through a stage where I was really thinking of retiring. I was trying to compete with the young lads in the gym and in the fitness - the events that I would have won when I was younger - but I was falling behind. It was heartbreaking.

“I realised I could only do the best I could do, week by week, month by month, moment by moment and soon I got back into a shape that I needed to.”

The ex-Ireland lock even admitted that just two months before winning his third Six Nations title and the player of the tournament award in 2015, he felt he was one of the worst players on the pitch for Munster.