Paul O'Connell has been speaking to Sky Sports this week and he has been speaking about what we all know has to happen eventually but don't really want to think about. He is seriously considering retirement in the aftermath of the World Cup
I don’t really know how long I can keep on going for – I want to play in the next World Cup and want to be in the best possible shape as possible. I am undecided if I will play on after the World Cup. It is something that plays on my mind a little bit – I don’t dread the day but I don’t think it was ever my intention to keep on playing this long. I certainly won’t be putting my hand up for Lions selection in 2017 – I’ll be long gone from the game, believe me!
After a Six-Nations championship win, and victories over South Africa and Australia in the Autumn tests, Ireland are entering 2015 on a high, and captain O'Connell has suggested that he wants to use the progress as a building block to better things.
It is an important year in terms of putting Ireland back on track and giving confidence to the side as well. To be able to operate without some really top notch players really gives us hope for the future. I think we have made really good progress and I think we have put a great foundation in place. But there is not one Six Nations team who have not got better – if they all get better and we don't then we will go backwards.
He also suggested that there is still room for improvement:
We could have easily have lost both those games [against South Africa and Australia] and it is important to keep that perspective. There were a lot of things in those games that we were disappointed about and feel that we need to work on. When you finish a game like those you are exhausted - you also know that you will probably be playing them again really soon so you don't want to go overboard with the celebration.
After Ireland performed so well against two of the favourites for next year's World Cup, O'Connell was prepared to field questions regarding his hopes for the World Cup, and he expressed his belief that Ireland have what it takes to go all the way.
We certainly have a chance. We have shown that we can beat anyone on our day. We still don’t have the strength in depth of the southern hemisphere nations so there are certain things that will have to go our way – but I think we have the potential to win a World Cup.
Four more years! Four more years!
You can watch the interview in full on Sky Sports' website here.
