Never say never, unless you are Paul O’Connell.
We all know, at this stage, that the Ireland captain is to retire from international rugby after he leads his country at the World Cup.
But what if… ?
O’Connell spoke about his move, from Munster to Toulon, for the first time today, at the official launch of Ireland’s new World Cup jersey.
He revealed that he had initially knocked back interest from Pau, where former Munster player James Coughlan and coach Simon Mannix were last season. The big-spending club recruited Paddy Butler and Sean Dougall for 2015/16 but were unsuccessful at tempting O’Connell.
However, the 35-year-old said that, on reflection, he quite fancied a move to France.
In February, O’Connell sounded out Paul Stridgeon – a strength and conditioning coach at Toulon – with whom he had worked with on past British & Irish Lions tours.
O’Connell says he told Toulon’s representatives that he would not discuss terms with them until after the 2014/15 season finished. If any complications arose, O’Connell added, he told the IRFU that he would immediately retire.
The Toulon deal was tied up in June but O’Connell stuck to his guns about his October 2015 retirement from the Ireland team, hopefully as late into that month as possible.
Despite being in such top form at present, the Six Nations Player of the Year insists the upcoming tournament will be his swansong.
He remarked, ‘The World Cup will certainly be the end of my rugby career… I don’t think I’ll be needed on the phone. We’ve got great strength in depth there.’
‘I will say never,’ he added.
Canterbury launched their new Ireland jerseys for the World Cup at a special event, today, in Galway. The home and away jerseys will be available to buy from July 24.
