Andy Farrell has welcomed the addition of Paul O'Connell to his Ireland camp this week.

The Ireland head coach invited the legendary former captain to spend time with the squad to offer his expert take on how they things are taking shape under the new regime.

O'Connell hasn't been involved in professional coaching since he cut short his time in France with Stade Francais last year.

Having previously spent time with the Ireland U-20s as well as the Munster Academy, O'Connell is currently weighing up his next career move.

Farrell hailed O'Connell's experience and he believes that he can bring a lot to the party ahead of this weekend's Six Nations clash.

“He’s been here all week,” Farrell said this afternoon after naming an unchanged team to play England on Sunday.

“He’s here until Friday. We like it when people come into camp. We try and invite as many people as we possibly can. It’s not just Paul that’s been in camp this week, there’s a few other guys.

“We like people to try and take stock from the outside and get a feel, the feeling of how camp is. Paul is here to observe and come into all the meetings, share his experience along the way and try and connect with the boys.

“He’s been there and done that. He’s been to Twickenham a few times and he’s played some big games, so he knows what the boys are going through.

"So yeah, you see a lot more of the boys gravitating towards him during the week, and that’s great to see.”

O'Connell wasn't the only high-profile guest invited to the team hotel last night as Bono spoke to the squad about Irishness, which has been the biggest theme that Farrell has been driving since taking over as head coach.

“(There was) Not too much singing actually,” Farrell revealed.

“First of all, we were blown away really that he gave his team up to come over and see us. We invited him in, he was top of the wish list, which was unbelievable really.

“He put a lot of time and effort into it as well. He is quite a private person really but he a lot of time and effort into being able to answer the questions from the floor in a great manner that we got something out of it.

“He is obviously a proud Irish man, so he talked a bit about Irishness."

Farrell brushed off the suggestion that this is the biggest week of his coaching career as he brings an Ireland team to Twickenham for the first time as the main man.

Despite the fact that he will go up against his home country as well as his son Owen, who is England captain, Farrell insisted that it was a case of business as usual this week.

I wouldn’t say so, no,” Farrell added.

“It’s another big game. I suppose we’ll play this game and the next one will be big as well. That’s what test match football is all about.

“I think I’ve spoken to him (Owen) two or three times. Sometimes it’s once a week. Sometimes it’s five times a week. Sometimes it’s ten. There’s nothing new there. Bit of Facetime talking to my grandson, that kind of thing.”

Online Editors