JOHNNY WATTERSONtalks to Ireland's inspirational forward about the taxing forthcoming schedule

OF THE varied strengths of Paul O’Connell, one taken for granted is that he always looks after shop. There is a certainty and a deliberation about the way he takes command himself and then brings others with him.

In the swirl of a World Cup and a team under pressure, tired and struggling O’Connell becomes more than just a world class lock. The Irish players will look to him, feed off him, put their bodies on the line in the way he does himself.

O’Connell knows the value of things in rugby that are seen as less precious, and unfashionable. He can see gold in dirt and has built his name around it.

He can talk about Ireland’s strike runners Keith Earls, or, Luke Fitzgerald. But he also sees Ireland’s August international series and World Cup hinge on grunt and hanging tough when others are fulminating about creativity and imagination.

Doggedness may claim more than a few scalps this summer.

“I think so, yeah. Absolutely,” he says. “I think you look at Munster, we may have gotten away from it at times but we got back to it towards the end of the season. Leinster certainly been very dogged in a lot of what they have been doing for the last few years.

“Hopefully we’re going to play nine or ten games in the next few months. It’s not going to be scintillating rugby for all of that. At times we are just going to have to work hard and be mentally strong, pull through and get a result. I think that’s a big part of our make-up as well and something we are very capable of.

“As well as playing the good running rugby and putting teams away, I think it’s the times when we are not playing well and we dig in that will probably define a lot of our summer and our tournament.”

In a sense O’Connell is preparing the ground. His experience with Ireland and the Lions has him accurately informed about the lulls and peaks of tournaments and the issues that shape them. Attitude will play a part as will the four international matches next month against France Scotland and England.

Less so platforms for handing Declan Kidney a string of injuries, O’Connell sees the benefits of those matches far out- weighing the likelihood of at least a few players limping off the stage.

“They are absolutely vital,” he says. “Excellent for us. No matter what you do on the pitch it just can’t replicate match fitness. Injuries will happen and that’s part and parcel of it. I don’t think you can mind yourself for the games.

“You have to play hard to get yourself up to that intensity. If you don’t, you may as well not travel to the World Cup because you are not going to be physically right. It’s part and parcel of the game but it’s vital for our preparation going into the competition.”

There too there is a balance between performance and results. August will be a month of judgement about the team’s effectiveness. But many of the players will also see the month as a window to September, the chance to convince Kidney that they should be one of the 30 players deserving of a ticket to New Zealand. August will have a different dynamic to a Six Nations Championship. Four Test matches in four weeks mirrors the World Cup pool.

“There is probably a balance all right,” he says about performance and results. “But winning is a habit. I’d like to be winning them and I’d like to be playing well too. But there’s going to be four tough games and they probably won’t all be pretty.

“People will jump up and down at times if it isn’t all pretty. For us it is important to realise being dogged is a big part of winning competitions, winning games when you are sometimes not playing well and when you are playing well putting teams away. Hopefully we can strike that right balance.”

His caution is well-placed and not a dire warning of dull inch-by- inch rugby. O’Connell’s optimism is based on ingrained knowledge of playing for Ireland 75 times and the Lions on six occasions. He’s not a dedicated kill-joy but an engaging pragmatist.

“We (Ireland) are in a very good place going into it,” he emphasises. “We know how good we can be. But the Six Nations showed both sides of Ireland. We also know how bad we can be when we are not right mentally, physically and that’s a good place for us to be. We’ve been successful in the past when we have just taken one game at a time.”

And where will that take Ireland? He smiles as if to say its still only July.

“Whatever happens after that,” he says, “happens.”