James O'Connor: 'It was a level of coaching I hadn't experienced before'

Speaking in the latest edition of Rugby Journal, Sharks target James O’Connor says that he has no firm plans beyond his next game for Leicester.

The veteran playmaker’s one-year deal with the Tigers runs out at the end of this season, and he intends to carry on playing, but he is just not sure where yet, despite reports linking him to South Africa.

“I’ve no real plan, I’ve moved to that stage of my life, even with Leicester, where I am going to let life find me instead of me trying to impose my will, by saying, ‘I want to go here, I want to do this.’ That takes energy, and it holds you on to something.

“I would rather be held to me performing on the weekend and me being a good man and me living my life, with my wife, my dog and everything else. And then just let the opportunities find me.”

Now 35, the utility back insists he is still full of running, despite having had his fair share of injuries.

“I’m running quicker now than I was five years ago,” he said.

“I’ve leaned up a bit, I’m not playing centre, I can still play 12 but 10’s more my spot.

“I’m not going to be scoring a 50-metre try, but I am still quick enough to use footwork and be through for five to 10 metres, and then look to offload.

“I’m not trying to play until I am 40, or trying to play until the next World Cup. If these things happen, great, but, I’m not planning anything.”

Leicester are his third PREM club, having had earlier spells at London Irish and Sale Sharks in a well-travelled career that has seen him play for Toulon and the Crusaders, amongst others.

Sale, under ‘old-school’ Steve Diamond came at just the right time for the 70-cap Wallaby, who hasn’t always lived the life of a professional.

“I just loved Steve,” he said. “He was just up front with me, honest, and I could just feel he was genuine.

“Even with my chequered past, he would say, ‘I’ll judge you on your action. You act like a man, I’ll treat you like a man.’

“It was one of the first times I felt I wasn’t being judged on what I had done when I was 21. He was going to help me get to where I wanted to be. And everything he said he’d do, he did.”

As well as the man-management side of things, O’Connor also felt his time at the Sharks improved him, technically, because of the work he did with Paul Deacon in bringing rugby league lines of running into his play.

“It was a level of coaching I hadn’t experienced before. It was really intricate, the ins and outs and the purpose for each play, there were no half-arse lines, it was clinical, and I loved that.”

You can read the full interview in issue 33 of Rugby Journal.