Amid all the fallout after the first weekend of the Six Nations, it was easy to overlook a short, cryptic report about Paul O'Connell's health in the French media yesterday. The report, it turns out, was the first indicator that O'Connell was about to pull the curtains down on his career.
Midi Olympique yesterday reported that O'Connell was 'no nearer to his Toulon debut'. The report mentioned that O'Connell was due to receive a scan on his injury this week but was reportedly 'still suffering'.
We know now that O'Connell had already told everyone at Toulon that he was retiring. A brilliant opportunity that the great man fully deserved - to play a season and a half with the greatest rugby team in the world in one of the most beautiful places in the planet - was being pulled away from him.
