Paul O’Connell has always been strikingly honest about his coaching career.
As a player, he was revered and feared, his iconic ‘manic aggression’ speech in the bowels of Croke Park ensured the latter.
Over the past eight years, the former lock has been coaching at various levels after his injury-enforced retirement in February 2016.
After a distinguished playing career that yielded three Six Nations titles with Ireland and three British and Irish Lions tours, he has carefully progressed his coaching education, which arrives at an important juncture this summer as he leads Ireland into Tests against Georgia and Portugal.
Following roles with the Munster academy and Ireland under-20s, O’Connell spent a year at Top 14 club Stade Francais as Heyneke Meyer’s forwards coach.
He found the going tough, later saying it was “too full-on for me”. But when head coach Andy Farrell came calling before the 2021 Six Nations, he considered the chance to work with Ireland’s current pack too good to turn down.
Naturally, when other opportunities have arisen, his name has been put forward with haste.
A Munster icon, he won two European Cups and three league titles during his 14 years in the red jersey. But when Johann van Graan announced he would vacate his role as Munster head coach for Bath at the end of the 2021-22 season, O’Connell admitted he “wouldn’t be qualified to do it”.
Again, when Graham Rowntree left the province last year, O’Connell said he had “no interest” in replacing the Englishman.
