Munster head coach Anthony Foley yesterday made plain his hope

Paul O’Connell will carry on playing after the World Cup and hinted he would try to persuade the Irish captain to continue at least until the end of his contract in June 2016.

“Yea, but everything like that will be in private and go on behind closed doors,” said Foley, after Munster trained in Thomond Park yesterday.

Tough decision

“I had to make that decision as well and it’s not an easy decision for anyone to make, to step away from a game that you love to play, but sometimes your body tells you that you need to look after yourself. So it’s important that he makes the right decision when the time comes for him to step away from it.”

Still irritated by reports Toulon are interested in signing him, Foley added: “I would have spoken to Paul about five times over the last eight days, but all of them were around preparation for the game [Munster v Ulster in Belfast, Saturday]. There hasn’t been one conversation around personal decisions that he may have to make.

Unbelievable

“Paul is contracted to June next season. I always get confused as to why we’re talking about a fella that’s under contract. He had an unbelievable Six Nations. I think he may have been the player of the Six Nations. I don’t know why we’d want to put him down yet,” said a smiling Foley, who confirmed O’Connell had trained fully yesterday after missing the win over Treviso last time out.

Asked if he would like to see O'Connell continue playing, Conor Murray admitted: "You wouldn't like to see a player like him start to dip in performances and sort of mellow out, to go out on a low. He's definitely the type of player that would like to go out on a high."

“I think he could continue for at least another year and go on, but it’s really himself that feels that: he knows his body better than anyone else, so it’s up to him.”