O'Connell delighted to be back in the swim

SIX NATIONS NEWS: IT'S AS WELL Paul O'Connell was a champion swimmer in his school days and a champion listener these days.

The Ireland lock has been grinning his way through waves of back advice since his vertebrae started giving him trouble shortly after the World Cup last year.

Men's Healthmagazine would have told him that Brahms is the balm and that when people with "loused-up" lumbar regions listened to music for one hour every day they experienced a 20 per cent reduction in back pain after just one week.

Others would have said heat pads, ice packs, adjustable chairs, manipulation, strength exercises, uppers, downers, sex avoidance, hanging from a beam and anti-inflammatories

Telling O'Connell to lie down and not to lift anything heavy wasn't quite the solution when reaching 15 feet in the air and cleaning out bodies of 20 stone is his stock-in-trade. But now, four months on and after a few weeks of progress, he's hoping that Declan Kidney will offer him a run with Munster in their Magners League match against Cardiff before Eddie O'Sullivan selects for the arrival of Wales.

"It's funny," he says. "Everyone gets back injuries and lots of people kept coming up to me with all this medical advice and telling me to swim. I did quite a bit of swimming. It's good for the fitness without putting pressure on your back."

His probable reappearance should not only add to the strength of the Ireland pack, where Donncha O'Callaghan, Mick O'Driscoll and Malcolm O'Kelly have successfully kept the lock positions competitive, but with such a long lay-off, should also add a new dynamic to the team.

Just as Andrew Trimble in the centre, Tommy Bowe and Rob Kearney on the wings, Geordan Murphy at fullback and O'Driscoll in the second row have brought a decidedly different emphasis to Ireland's overall game.

O'Connell will come in with low seasonal mileage.

"That's what everyone keeps telling me anyway," he says optimistically. "There's no doubt that a break from being involved in high-pressure games week in, week out . . . it is mentally tough, more so than physically tough . . . while you do live the games with the lads, it's not the same as being involved in the build-up all week. It does leave you a little bit fresher.

"It's a different voice," he adds. "I've been in teams where a different voice coming in and freshens things up. I do talk quite a bit so maybe that will freshen things up for the lads."

There is little doubt that O'Connell is not quite where he needs to be for international rugby. Monitoring fitness with a stopwatch on the training paddock cannot mimic a match situation, where there are no allotted rest periods and no knowledge of what demands the game is going to make on his body.

Even the process of moving effectively from one ruck to the next for 80 minutes could represent a challenge.

When O'Connell arrived off the bench against Scotland last Saturday the adjustment to match conditions was not seamless.

"It was hard enough," he says. "I came off the bench last week against Edinburgh (Magners League) as well so I was kind of used to it. After five or six minutes, I found I was struggling badly but after 10 or 12 minutes (against Scotland) I felt great. I didn't want it to finish when it did.

"All the talk now is about using your subs and using your bench but getting a second wind is something that is very important. It is hard."

For now there is uncertainty. The Irish vice-captain is confident of playing without feeling the need to protect his back, but the long lay-off will certainly have tempered his effectiveness.

He is not expected to ride in against the Welsh dragon and start lancing it all over the park. But there is also relief he can now tell O'Sullivan to remember him in his plans and, once again, be seen as useful to the squad.

"It was nice to come on and get a run on the team for an international game. It didn't look like it would happen three or four weeks ago," he says. "It was a brilliant experience. I had no doubts about it (the injury). It was just the time frame that worried me, how long it would take. I was anxious to get there. Once we got it under control three or four weeks ago I was happy."

The trip to Wales on Saturday should indicate the health of O'Connell's 6ft 6in frame and whether all the back advice has paid off. The Ireland medical team has a good record in assembly-line rehabilitation. One of O'Connell's strengths has been the ability to get to the place he wants to get too without appearing unseemly in his haste. He smiles.

"Next week is another week," he says. And you get the feeling it can't come soon enough.