O’Connell: I haven’t given Irish captaincy role much thought
Paul O’Connell does not expect to be offered the Irish captaincy by new Ireland rugby head coach Joe Schmidt.
The 33-year-old has spoken previously of his desire to play at the 2015 World Cup, but feels Jamie Heaslip, Jonny Sexton, Sean O’Brien and Peter O’Mahony might be to the forefront of Schmidt’s thinking.
“Captaining is something I enjoy, but when I don’t have it I tend to enjoy (that) as well,†said O’Connell on RTÉ Radio 1’s John Murray Show before addressing the prospect of taking on the Ireland role. “I haven’t given it a lot of thought. There’s a lot of really good young players coming through that are real leaders and capable of leading Ireland.
“The likes of Jamie [Heaslip], who is doing the job at the moment, has a fantastic record with Leinster and probably didn’t get as much credit as he deserved with Ireland.
“Jonny Sexton, Sean O’Brien… Peter O’Mahony did the job this summer. There’s a lot of good young guys coming through there and I’d happily serve under one of them or help one of them out.â€
O’Connell didn’tanswer a direct query on whether he would accept the job if asked, claiming it was an unlikely scenario.
“I don’t think it’s really going to happen so I haven’t given it much thought.â€
Meanwhile, the lock, who is getting married next week, revealed his legendary work ethic is a product of a childhood swimming career.
“I would have trained more as a 12-year-old swimming than I do now as a professional rugby player so I learned very quickly to appreciate the values of hard work. One thing swimming gave me, I realised that the more you put in, the more you get out of it.â€
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O"Connell: I haven"t given Irish captaincy role much thought
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