O’Connell Ready To Lead Charge On Rome

With Ireland set to begin the defence of their 6 Nations title at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome tomorrow afternoon, get the thoughts of Ireland captain and Munster stalwart Paul O’Connell.

Speaking with ‘In Touch’ – the official IRFU magazine – the second-row played down any talk of potential Championship and Grand Slam successes, focusing purely on the job at hand this weekend. Although he didn’t feature last time out at the Stadio Olimpico, O’Connell remains well versed in the physicality and threat of the Italians, especially at home.

“Yeah the big focus is on Italy, we haven’t looked at France at all really. We’ve come into camp and reviewed the autumn and looked ahead at Italy and started preparing. You don’t get a lot of time. Ultimately we’re going to have eight training sessions by the time we play Italy so you just have to prepare for that one game as much as you can.

“Italy are excellent at home, obviously we lost there two years ago and ROG had to kick a drop-goal four years ago in the dying minutes, so they’re excellent at home and they’re also very good early on in the championship.

“You always think of their pack – they’ve an excellent scrum, excellent set-piece and they’ve been playing a lot more ball in hand – they scored an excellent try against us last season.

“So they’re a really tough challenge, they seem to be getting better each year. Obviously they’ve one of the best players in the world in Sergio Parisse.”

Busy times for the Young Munster clubman and former Lions captain as he balances family life with his provincial and international rugby commitments.

“We get plenty of down time. During the RBS 6 Nations we’ve two weekends off, which is great because the 6 Nations is a tough, pressurized time. You have to stay completely focused on the match. I still do enjoy it, the build-up is tough and the day before the game I’m still very nervous but I really enjoy it. It helps that we’ve had a good winning record in recent years.”

“It puts a lot of pressure on the family. We had a baby three months ago and the first month of that I spent in camp so the baby was in a sleeping routine by the time I got home, which is great! Great for me but tough on Emily. In fairness to her she’s done everything. I do a feed about 12 o’clock and that’s about my only job.”

To read more of this month’s IRFU In Touch Magazine please click here.

Italy v Ireland, 2015 RBS 6 Nations, Saturday February 7th at the Stadio Olimpico, Rome – KO: 2:30pm (Irish time).

This game will be televised on RTE2. Follow the action online using #ShoulderToShoulder #ITAvIRE