The manner in which Paul O'Connell turned from being 'useless enough' as a teenager into one of the best players in the world is an example to all young sports people, according to his former Munster and Ireland teammate Jerry Flannery.

Flannery, who was O’Connell’s scrum coach in his final campaign with Munster last season, said there was nothing to suggest when they were growing up in Limerick that the Ardscoil Rís student would go on to captain his province, country and the Lions.

Flannery, who won two Heineken Cup titles and a Six Nations Grand Slam with O'Connell, said that the way he turned himself from an average teenage player into a global giant is an example to every young player of what hard work can achieve.

Flannery, who first encountered him when he was playing for St Munchin’s against O’Connell’s Ardscoil Rís at U-16 level, said it was his hunger to constantly keep learning which set him apart.

Younger players

“I remember when I played him under 16 that he was useless enough, he was just a tall and skinny red-haired guy. I left school then and I got to UCC and I remember seeing the Irish Schools team and seeing Paul O’Connell was on it and I was asking how did this guy make that jump?

“That’s what I say to a lot of younger players. Everybody sees Paul O’Connell and they see him as this kind of guy who was built to be the best rugby player in Ireland ever but everything Paul has added to his game, it’s down through sheer hard work.

“He was never particularly a good passer of the ball ya know. I know how hard he’s worked on his lineout game and he was a guy who just kept getting better year on year,” said Flannery.

And the former Ireland hooker revealed that O'Connell did extra training sessions in the build-up to the World Cup in a bid to go out on his Irish career in the best possible shape.

“He is the hardest trainer I have ever come across. He asked me during the build-up to the World Cup to fall in with him, he was doing extra on top of his own fitness work . . they were murderous sessions.

“I remember puking in the bin upstairs in UL on a Saturday morning. You’d be dreading getting the phone call from him on a Thursday asking what are you doing on Saturday.

“But he has always trained very hard, always pushed himself very hard but he also understands the importance of what to focus on and make it digestible for players around him.

“When he would speak to teams beforehand he would know exactly the notes he would need to hit and none of his stuff happens by accident, it is all a lot of work gone into it.”

Flannery believes O’Connell will make a superb coach.

“Players like Paul are effectively like coaches when they play anyway and Paul would always be a guy at meetings asking questions to make sure everybody else would know exactly what was going on. It was not for his own benefit that he asked questions. I think that he would make a fantastic coach.

“He was an outstanding second row, very good at his own position but outside that he was constantly learning all the time.

“He would take little bits from other players and try to put them to his own game . . .

“He added subtleties to his game.”