Still no go for Paulie

PAUL O’CONNELL last night shrugged off the latest speculation from France that he is still a target for big-spending Toulon. The Ireland skipper, in Dublin to collect the second IRUPA Players’ Player of the Year award of his career, said there was still nothing to the links. ‘The stuff about France, you [media] probably know more than I do,’ he said. ‘The only time I think about it is when I read about it. ‘I haven’t given it any thought. I need to decide whether I’m going to play on or not after the World Cup and we’ll see after that,’ he said, adding he hadn’t yet asked the IRFU

if it might be possible to break contract [he is signed until summer 2016] and play club rugby elsewhere if he retired from Test duty at the end of the World Cup in October. This summer is decision time when I decide what I’m going to do, put it out there, hopefully bring speculation to an end. I’ve probably contributed to it by not saying what I’m going to do... but I don’t know yet.’ Now 35, O’Connell claims he’s a very different player to the 26-year-old who won the 2006 IRUPA award following a Triple Crown season with Ireland and a European Cup title with Munster. ‘The way I train and prepare now is so different. I remember that year we’d a very long pre-season and I broke my hand in my first game back punching Simon Easterby and got another 10 weeks training and ended up with a 22-week pre-season.’