Paul O'Connell said earlier this week that he was in Minnesota to have a 'chat' with the European Ryder Cup team.
O'Connell saying he's going to have a 'chat' with you would normally have ominous overtones. Munster and Ireland teammates down the years undoubtedly had words from O'Connell blasting into their ears during one of his talks.
Everyone involved with the European team has expressed plenty of positivity regarding what O'Connell had to say.
Paul O'Connell Ryder Cup Speech
Captain Darren Clarke, who brought O'Connell over to Hazeltine for the talk, said that such was the attentiveness to O'Connell, 'you could have heard a pin drop'.
Paul most definitely was exceptional in the team room last night. Any man that leads the British Lions who are playing overseas all the time, they play away from home; as the people from Europe that know rugby, they are the traveling side. So to get his input and his vision on what it took to make a successful traveling side was very impressive.
The caddies, the players, everybody in that room; you could have heard a pin drop whenever Paul was addressing them. And it was quite interesting, because Paul is a very -- a very large man, 6'7", 6'7" and a half. And he's big in stature. But whenever Paul addressed the team, he sat down. He didn't stand up. He didn't feel the need to stand up and intimidate anybody. He brought himself down on the same level as everybody else.
The team and the caddies were unbelievably impressed with the words that he gave us last night, so I was very, very thankful for him to come along and do that. The guys were thoroughly inspired.
After that, going into the team room and having Dynamo there, Paul was in there, as well, with Dynamo and to see the guys switch off a little bit and chill and enjoy themselves was also very beneficial. All in all, it was a very productive evening.
Justin Rose thought O'Connell's passion was particularly evident.
There's definitely a lot that he brought. The passion is what he really brought and just how important it is to be part of a team; and not necessarily be part of a team, but make your team better for future generations; and be accountable to the number on the back of your shirt; and what that particularly means in their sport so that the next No. 5 has something to look up to and has a role model.
So you know, obviously that can be very much easily transferred to our team this week in the sense of every single one of us has an honor to represent ourselves and the team in the best way possible and leave it in a better place for the next team in two years' time.
Swede Henrik Stenson, who would not have known much about O'Connell prior to this week, felt the former Munster player's input was 'interesting'.
When Paul came in and we saw a video of highlights of his career and the team spirit that he had and the teams that he played for. Yeah, it was a good session and it's always interesting to get that input and feedback from someone from a different sport. He's a very nice man and it was a good experience.
