{"id":110664,"date":"2025-10-29T17:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T17:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/110664\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T17:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T17:07:08","slug":"paul-oconnell-insists-hes-very-happy-in-the-trenches-after-leading-ireland-on-summer-tour-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/110664\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul O\u2019Connell insists he\u2019s \u2018very happy in the trenches\u2019 after leading Ireland on summer tour \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plenty of water has passed under the bridge since the Ireland<\/a> coaching ticket signed off on last season\u2019s autumn window together. Granted, after Simon Easterby<\/a> assumed the reins for the Six Nations<\/a>, Andy Farrell<\/a> brought the bulk of his assistants on the Lions tour while forwards coach Paul O\u2019Connell<\/a> took charge of Ireland\u2019s Tests in Georgia and Portugal. But O\u2019Connell has no designs on a coup just yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very happy in the trenches. I\u2019m learning all the time and still have so much to learn. The way Simon might put together a week or the way Andy might put together a week, sometimes I wouldn\u2019t see it that way yet. <\/p>\n

\u201cI still feel I\u2019m learning in that regard and as an assistant coach there\u2019s so many experiences you can have that can help you if you ever want to be a head coach, and I still feel I\u2019m very much on that journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great experience for me to be able to go and do it for a little while and then duck back into what I\u2019m more used to as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farrell, O\u2019Connell et al have had to hit the ground running since landing in Chicago on Tuesday of last week. Individually and collectively, no Irish team has ever gone into such a daunting assignment as meeting New Zealand<\/a> in Chicago\u2019s Soldier Field on Saturday with less minutes or game time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is challenging but it is what it is,\u201d said O\u2019Connell from the squad\u2019s training base at the SeatGeek Stadium in metropolitan Chicago ahead of a four-game window.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted more fixtures. We want to get as much time with the players as we can. We want big games for the players. This November is a great opportunity for us to give game time in big, big games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not ideal but I think our player of the tour down in New Zealand in 2022 was Tadhg Beirne<\/a>, and he\u2019d come off the back of a considerable injury break,\u201d said O\u2019Connell, pointing out that even their Lions players are \u201ca lot further down the track than people might believe\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we came over early. We\u2019ve had two really good, fast sessions; we\u2019ve one more fast session to get under our belt. I think we\u2019ll be in a good place come Saturday. It\u2019s not perfect but getting an extra fixture was never going to be perfect in such a busy year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beirne\u2019s outstanding performance in Munster\u2019s win over Leinster last Saturday week also demonstrated lack of game time need not necessarily be a hindrance.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was excellent. He\u2019s such a smart rugby player in the decisions he makes. It looks like he doesn\u2019t move as quick as other guys but he actually is quite fast off the mark and he\u2019s a little bit like Anthony Foley, he\u2019s a little bit ahead of the game all the time and I think that\u2019s been his trademark over the last few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell likened Beirne\u2019s seasonal debut to Se\u00e1n O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d come back after a three- or four-month hip injury where he wouldn\u2019t have ran more than 5 or 6k, and he\u2019d be the best player on the field. He was constantly ahead of the game because of the habits he had and Tadhg Beirne is a little bit like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was brilliant to see him play well last week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plenty of water has passed under the bridge since the Ireland coaching ticket signed off on last season\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1451,25747,61,60,1449,43,67195],"class_list":["post-110664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-all-blacks","tag-andy-farrell","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-news","tag-paul-o-connell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}