FOR SOMEONE who has achieved almost everything the game has to offer, an All Blacks scalp remains one of Paul O'Connell's enduring ambitions. The man known for setting high standards faces what he describes as "the ultimate challenge" and hopes something historic can be achieved against New Zealand in Croke Park on Saturday.
After making his Ireland debut against Wales in 2002, he tasted the New Zealand rugby terrain that summer, playing the first Test in Dunedin. Alas, the Carisbrook venue, known as the House of Pain, provided an apt metaphor for a dressingroom of broken hearts afterwards. An opportunity of a first victory against the men in black was lost in a 15-6 defeat.
Three years ago the Lions experience was an altogether harsher experience, as it was for many other broken souls who suffered the famous "Blackwash". But in subsequent outings against the All Blacks in 2006 (two Tests) and then five months ago in Wellington, the "so near but yet so far" cliché was the story line.
But the performances were encouraging, a sign that an historic first victory lies tantalisingly at Ireland's fingertips.
And someone who can tip the balance in Ireland's favour is Declan Kidney. The psychological edge the Cork man brings to the dressingroom could help them, says O'Connell, who has first-hand experience of the Kidney methodology at Munster.
"Whenever we in Ireland have played the All Blacks, we've always done okay against them; we've always competed very well and always been there or thereabouts at the end," said O'Connell at the team's base in Limerick yesterday. "We just need to get that little bit of something to get us over the line."
Asked whether Kidney could help Ireland breast the tape in first place on Saturday, O'Connell said: "Maybe, yeah, maybe that's it. I talk about it with the Munster teams. By the time I came into the Munster set-up I expected to win every game I played in. There was a time when Anthony (Foley), Gaillimh (Mick Galwey), Claw (Peter Clohessy) and Quinny (Alan Quinlan) played with Munster and they didn't expect that to happen.
"Then they had a season around 1999/2000 where the whole psyche of the team kinda changed," he said, referring to their victory over Saracens in Vicarage Road that set them on the road to a first Heineken Cup final.
"You get to the stage now where Keith Earls comes in (with Munster), not just expecting to win every game but he expects to win a Heineken Cup. That's where we need to get to with Ireland and that's a very hard thing - to change the attitude of the mindset of people and the psyche of people. That's where we need to get to."
O'Connell also said it'd be a great disappointment if he were unable to register a win over the All Blacks in his career. "I think it would be a big regret for a lot of us if we didn't beat them at some stage in our career, whether it comes this week or some day in the future. They're a great side.
"Historically with Irish teams, their fitness would have been poor against these guys, but I think we've bridged that gap now as well. These last few years when we played them we've never completed against them as consistently as we have in the last few years. It's hard to tell what would happen, but we'd be hoping for something to happen."
His hope may finally see history being made.
