Paul O’Connell not dwelling on ‘the long goodbye’

Paul O’Connell has refused to get sidetracked by what he calls “the long goodbye”.

As the Irish captain prepares to line out against Wales on Saturday for what will be his last international match in Aviva Stadium, he's adamant that his own piece of history will not take from Ireland's World Cup preparations.

“It’s all about this game. There seem to have been a lot of ‘final’ everythings for me, the last final game at Thomond Park, final game for Munster . . . I suppose it just sort of drags on a little bit,” said the Irish captain.

“Certainly with Munster in those final few weeks, I thought about it a lot but it hasn’t really bogged me down this week. It’s my first start so it’s more about where I’m going to be in terms of my play and my fitness. That is where my mind is at the moment.

“I’ve had a good pre-season and that but it will still have been two and a half months since a game. So I’m just eager to get out and see where I am and put in a good performance rather than dragging on the long goodbye.”

O’Connell also echoed what other Irish squad members have been saying since Ireland’s win over Scotland and he hopes to fix some of the areas that didn’t go perfectly last time out.

Despite winning the match the patchy performance and missed tackles have irked management and players alike.

“I’m disappointed with some of the things I did in the Scottish game and I’m eager to correct those,” said O’Connell. “It’s just about the game and getting it right. Wales would have been really disappointed by their performance in the first game and they will be way further down the track in terms of their conditioning and it’s very much a different team.”

Looking back the secondrow has some regrets, one of them not taking the golden opportunity to beat the All Blacks for the first time in 2013. A converted injury-time try for New Zealand condemned Ireland to a heartbreaking defeat having led 22-17. Ryan Crotty's try, converted by Aaron Cruden, saw the world champions end that year with a perfect 14 victories.

“Yeah of course you would, you’d love to beat them,” says O’Connell. “I look back on that game certainly as a big disappointment and a great opportunity lost. But look, I don’t give New Zealand a lot of thought, especially at this stage of the season.

“You’d certainly hope that as things go on into the World Cup that we’d get a crack at them, but it’s not something I give a lot of thought to now.”

O’Connell sees the autumn series as critical to the Irish team’s development and effectiveness, especially against teams from the southern hemisphere. Latterly his son Paddy has also become old enough to bring another dimension to his rugby and share in some of the post game moments.

“The November internationals when we started competing with and regularly beating the southern hemisphere teams, they were important days,” he says.

“Recent years as well . . . is Six Nations particularly when Paddy was able to come into the dressing room afterwards and hang around. I remember The Claw (Peter Clohessy) doing that with Luke (son), when he was young and I was young.

“So those two games this year, when we won big games against France and England, and Paddy was in the changing rooms afterwards were days I really enjoyed.”

O’Connell warned against the Irish players looking too far ahead. Many will see the match as an audition for the 31-man World Cup, but unless the players perform for each other a hungry Welsh team could easily turn them over.

“We’re not holding anything back anyway. You just can’t afford to. I think everyone is trying to get to take their opportunities and everyone else is trying to put everyone else in a position to take their opportunities.

“From a set-piece point of view, you need to win your ball to allow guys have a crack, both in lineout and scrum. So no, there’s no holding back and the way we prepare, I know I say it all the time, we don’t get too far ahead of ourselves.

“I’m sure management have a long-term plan but as players we don’t get too far ahead of ourselves, we just have a heavy emphasis on what’s right in front of us and we work really hard at that.”