O'Connell will be with the BBC throughout the Six Nations and as a result we'll be hearing an awful lot from him over the course of the next few weeks - which is definitely not a bad thing.
He was on the BBC 5Live preview show last night alongside former England centre Jeremy Guscott and ex-Scottish scrum half Rory Lawson. They looked ahead to the Six Nations and this summer's Lions tour. Naturally enough we got picks for the Lions XV for all three pundits.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Paul O'Connell has seven Irish players. Because who is going to argue with Paul O'Connell?!
Strangely, he includes Jamie Heaslip in the team but not at number eight. O'Connell has the Leinster man playing out of position at blindside, choosing to omit CJ Stander.
Here's the team in full.
Paul O'Connell Lions XV
1. Mako Vunipola (England)
2. Rory Best (Ireland)
3. Tadhg Furlong (Ireland)
4. Alun Wyn Jones (Wales)
5. Maro Itoje (England)
6. Jamie Heaslip (Ireland)
7. Sean O’Brien (Ireland)
8. Billy Vunipola (England)
9. Conor Murray (Ireland)
10. Johnny Sexton (Ireland)
11. Simon Zebo (Ireland)
12. Owen Farrell (England)
13. Jonathan Joseph (England)
14. George North (Wales)
15. Stuart Hogg (Scotland)
To be fair, he admits after picking it that it'll probably change after this weekend's action.
Paul O'Connell has selected his British & Irish Lions starting XV ahead of the #RBS6Nations.
Will it look the same in 6 weeks time? pic.twitter.com/KlqRiwMi1L
— BBC 5 live Sport (@5liveSport) February 2, 2017
Paulie made his picks on a pretty interesting show, where he also talked about how Joe Schmidt was the best coach in world rugby.
You can listen to the full 5live preview here.
