Time for honesty as Paul O'Connell's lineout woes linger

The time for Ireland to be brutally honest about O’Connell’s struggles has surely come. Answers are overdue.

RUMBLED: Jack Conan pinches this All Black lineout at Soldier Field but New Zealand enjoyed superiority out of touch far too often for Ireland’s wellbeing in Chicago. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

The rain that for most of the week had been forecast to arrive right on time for Saturday’s Soldier Field get-together belatedly swept its way into Chicago’s downtown in Sunday’s early morning hours.

It slickened the streets for thousands who descended on Grant Park for the Hot Chocolate Run, which sent runners off around 7.30am. Ireland were the only team to experience Chicago under grey skies and in a dampened mood and that felt about right. Scott Robertson’s All Blacks had departed across the Atlantic on a chartered plane in the hours after victory Saturday night. Bound for Edinburgh in what Ardie Savea joked post-match was ‘Razor’s private jet’.