Putting the fear of God into young bucks the length and breadth of the nation.
When Paul O’Connell fractured his arm on the 2013 Lions tour, he remained in Australia and effectively became Andy Farrell’s deputy forwards coach. He took over the lineout drills and had a say in defensive structures. Warren Gatland called him a natural.
Donncha O’Callaghan will tell you that the moment he first clapped eyes on O’Connell, 15 years ago, he knew he was destined to be a leader of men. Always yapping, always sharing his opinions, demanding more of himself and of others. Inspiring by words and deeds.
O’Connell was forced to retire, earlier this year, when the hamstring he tore on World Cup duty failed to heal in time to make any sort of impact at Toulon. He has since been assessing his options and visited both Harlequins and Grenoble to get a taste of their set-ups.
REPORT: Paul O'Connell has taken his first steps into coaching, and it's in France https://t.co/858fs6X0Kq
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) March 26, 2016
O’Connell’s goal is to, one day, coach the Munster team he represented on the pitch with such passion and purpose.
If the IRFU have anything to do with it, the 35-year-old will do his coaching in Ireland and pass on his learnings to the next generation, and the one after that.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Irish Independent, IRFU High Performance Director David Nucifora has stated his ambition to get O’Connell involved in coaching on these shores. He commented:
“He’ll make his decision when he’s ready about what exactly he wants to do, but we’ve been in touch with Paul, we were speaking to Paul before he retired about what the future might look like.
“You don’t want to waste a resource like Paul O’Connell, he’s got a lot to offer Irish rugby going forward. We’re just working with Paul to work out the best way of utilising what he brings to our game.”
With Rassie Erasmus as Munster’s first ever Director of Rugby, overseeing Anthony Foley, it will be interesting to see if O’Connell would be interested in taking on an assistant coach role.
O’Connell has already received plenty of job offers so it is just a matter of picking the right path and ploughing ahead.
