Paul O’Connell tried.
God knows he tried.
If you ask any Irish man or women to name a warrior of their country, you wouldn’t get past three names without every one of them giving a nod to the Limerick native.
He’s the epitome of what a sportsman should be. Tough, aggressive, an honest hard-worker and a leader. He worked on his weaknesses, he elevated his strengths and every single time he went to do battle with the talented tools at his disposal, he went there full-hearted and prepared to bleed.
But O’Connell, like 111 years worth of other Irish warriors, could never scalp the All Blacks.
He sweated for it.
He hurt for it.
But he could never get it.
And it continued to elude him.
It continued to hurt him.
Even with the Lions.
So it didn’t matter that the Munster legend wasn’t on the field in Chicago as Ireland buried over a century of hurt against New Zealand.
He has played his part in this journey and he has played his part in the development of this team and its individuals. But, crucially, Paul O’Connell is just an Irish man and, on Saturday, he was just as proud and as overjoyed as the rest of us as Joe Schmidt masterminded a historic win over the All Blacks.
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Sitting alongside New Zealand legend Doug Howlett, O’Connell refused to curb his enthusiasm for the men in green and what had just unfolded and even Howlett himself seemed to get caught up in the drama of it all.
A wise leader once said:
“Listen to me now, listen to me. I want them standing back thinking ‘what the f**k is going on here?’
“Not for the first five minutes, every f**king minute of the game. F**king manic aggression.
“Did you scare anyone? Did you f**king put the fear of God into anyone?”
O’Connell couldn’t be on the field on Saturday, sport and life works itself out that way sometimes. But after trying for so long, after leading for so long, he would’ve had a lump in his throat at the sight of his countrymen answering his rallying call and finishing the job he started.
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