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13th March 2015
04:52pm GMT

The Limerick man concedes that, physically, he is not the same player as he was in his prime - '25 and 26' - but feels a fastidious quest for improvement has kept him at the top of his game. He said:
'I've been interested and motivated in training, rugby training or weight training or fitness or meetings or video analysis. It's never been a chore for me. I think that happens to some guys maybe towards the end of their careers, it becomes a chore for them. It's never been a chore for me; I've always enjoyed it and I still enjoy it. I enjoy it more than ever and that's probably one of the reasons I'm still playing.'Asked about his memories of the cavernous, daunting [for visiting sides] Millennium Stadium, O'Connell said, 'Some good and some bad ones. 'It’s a fantastic stadium. I was jogging across the pitch with Jordi Murphy today... he’s never played here before and when he came out he looked around and thought it was an incredible stadium straight away.'
'I suppose a lot of us are very experienced so it’s quite rare that you hear someone saying that,' O'Connell added. 'It’s rare to go to grounds like this and guys behind you haven’t played there before at some point or another.'
O'Connell has won two Heineken Cups at the stadium but the Grand Slam win, at the same venue, in 2009, is the one he cherishes most.
'I genuinely thought we’d lost it towards the end of the game,' he admitted, 'and I was over the moon when the kick came up short and we’d won it.'Explore more on these topics: