Paul O'Connell Has Made His Teammates 'Weep' At Times According To This Writer

The countdown to the collision between Ireland and England is starting to crank up a notch and the Times across the water decided to take a look at our captain and general Superman Paul O'Connell today.

Paul Ackford has profiled the man he calls Ireland's green giant and while the piece pays all the typical plaudits to O'Connell such as hard work, motivator and obsession with standards, it also manages to include the now seemingly obligatory knock against his ball carrying and suggest that he and Joe Schmidt had an ideological clash between grinding up the jumpers rugby in the Munster mold and free flowing Baa-Baa's wannabe Leinster-ball when the Kiwi took over the Ireland job.

The most interesting and seemingly far fetched nugget is the notion that O'Connell has made team-mates weep with his pre-match speeches.

So there you have it, Paulie doesn't just make grown men cry, he makes his own teammates cry, just with words.

(Times (€))

Picture: SPORTSFILE

GIF: Paul O’Connell And A Heroic 79th Minute Tackle, Say No More