Paul O’Connell fired up for Dublin battle

Mar 6 2008 by Simon Thomas, Western Mail

PAUL O’CONNELL will be looking to take the frustrations of the past six months out on Wales when he returns to the Irish starting line-up this weekend.

It’s been a tough old season for the Lions lock, who first shared in Ireland’s World Cup flop and then found himself facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines due to a bulging disc in his lower back.

But, having come off the bench for his 50th cap during the victory over Scotland and then proved his fitness with an immense 80-minute display in Munster’s defeat to the Blues last weekend, he is now back where he belongs in his country’s boiler-house for the visit of Triple Crown-hunting Wales.

O’Connell admits it has been a difficult time in his career, with uncertainty surrounding just when he would be able to return from his injury.

“I had a small bulge on the disc, something that had been there for ages but never caused me any problems,” he revealed.

“It just inflamed and I couldn’t get a grip of it. It kept causing problems.

“Sometimes when an injury is bad enough, you get a timescale and you know when you can come back.

“I was lucky and unlucky in that it wasn’t a bad injury, rather it was something you had to allow to heal and it was a bit up and down. Sometimes you think, ‘Can I just get a job done on this?’

“Give me a time frame and something I can work towards. But it wasn’t like that. I’ve had several injuries where they’d tell you six weeks. Then you’re told you can do this training and that training and you can use it to your benefit and work on different things.

“But I was going from week to week with the back. You can’t do a lot: you can’t do weights, you can’t do speed.

“All you can do is sit and relax and try to let it heal itself. There was never any time when I felt I wouldn’t be back. But it was so frustrating not having a timeframe.

“The physios were saying you could wake in the morning and it will be fine. And I’d wake up in the morning and it would be a lot better, but not good enough to play or train.

“A low point was playing half a game with Young Munster in January and feeling fine only for it to go again.

“But injuries happen and you’ve got to move on. I was lucky the way the physios dealt with it. Every possible thing was covered and, once I got playing, we were very confident it wouldn’t go again.”

With his fitness restored, the 28-year-old is now raring to go and relishing the prospect of taking on Wales.

“I’ve had a nice rest from the game,” he said. “I could have done with having another 80 minutes under my belt, but I feel good.

“While I’d like to have more fitness, this is not an ideal world and I’m fortunate that I have good natural fitness. There are a few bits and pieces that I’ve had to sharpen up on since coming back into the squad, but nothing I can’t manage.”

O’Connell’s Test career will come full circle this weekend as he won the first of his 50 caps against Wales in Dublin back in 2002.

He marked the occasion with a touchdown in a 54-10 demolition that marked the end of Graham Henry’s reign as Welsh coach.

“I ran into the elbow of one of the Quinnells and got knocked out early on,” he recalled. “I played on for about a half hour and scored a try, but I don’t remember it!”

Six years on, O’Connell is aiming to share in another home victory over the Welsh, with his confidence boosted by the 34-13 defeat of Scotland at Croke Park, where he came on after 55 minutes and immediately sorted out a wobbly line-out.

“We are very much looking forward to the game,” he said. “We are playing better and are gaining in confidence the whole time.

“Wales are playing well. Shaun Edwards and Warren Gatland seem to have established a lot of confidence, but I think we are getting back to our best.

“We finished off well against Scotland in our last game and got some tries against a strong side.

“We were very disciplined and held them off. There was a good defensive attitude and we capitalised on that as the game wore on.”