Paul O'Connell gives his verdict on who would win between Ireland and New Zealand

Former Ireland lock Paul O’Connell has given his verdict on who he believes the victor would be in a matchup between Ireland and New Zealand.

The 39-year-old Ireland legend was talking to Today FM about adjusting to life after rugby, in addition to talking about what currently was happening in his life.

When asked by radio presenter host Mario Rosenstock if he misses the sport, O’Connell said:

We had a great sense of purpose when we were playing, you’re constantly on, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.I miss that but I don’t massively miss the game, I had my time, I really didn’t think I’d end up playing until I was 35 so I got as much as I could out of it.

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O’Connell had some bold words to say about Ireland’s World Cup chances too, claiming that he believes that Ireland have deserved their place as number two in the world.

I think sometimes in the ranking you can get a little bit lucky, but you look at their record over the last few years against the southern hemisphere teams, they are definitely the second best team in the world.

Ireland have been enjoying an extremely successful year so far, after having been crowned Grand Slam champions in the Six Nations and Series winners in Australia this June. The real task that Ireland now face will be the number 1 ranked team in the world, New Zealand.

O’Connell appeared to be optimistic about Ireland’s chances against New Zealand saying:

Can the other teams around us beat them on a given day? Certainly, they can…but if we play New Zealand we can certainly beat them and we can beat any of the teams that do beat them as well in the competition.

These are confident words from the former Ireland and Lions star who had won 108 caps for the men in green.

New Zealand will travel to Ireland on the 17th of November in the hotly anticipated clash.