THE MIDAS TOUCH OF IRISH RUGBY

PAUL O'Connell nearly killed a man once.

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There are plenty of eyewitnesses to back the story up.

In fact the former Ireland and Munster captain even wrote about it in his autobiography, The Battle, recalling a training ground incident where a young Ulster player, Ryan Caldwell, put him on the floor with a tackle'.

"My switch went," was O'Connell's recollection of the moment, while the IRFU downplayed the incident further, issuing a wishy-washy statement saying Caldwell had suffered a concussive injury in a 'continuity contact session'.

This was in 2007. At the time it all seemed a little vague and O'Connell's book only served to add a certain amount of meat to the bone.

Now, 18 years on, we finally get to hear the other man's take on what happened.

This is Caldwell's recollection: "In no way was I the innocent party. I think some people had the impression it was a training ground punch up, and it wasn't. Yes, I was tackling and jackalling and making life as awkward as possible. He punched me full whack and knocked me out. He was 27, probably at his physical peak and in the shape of his life.

"He came to visit me in hospital and was so scared he had nearly killed me. It really affected him as well and after that I'd say he was totally aware of the power a trained athlete can unleash when the red mist comes down.

"I really want to stress that there is no issue on my part; I have no hard feelings towards him and don't want to put any slight on him. It's not like I have been dining out on this story ever since. I only ever spoke about it if someone asked directly."

The person who asked him this time was Brendan Fanning, the award winning journalist who this week has published a new book, Touching Distance, chronicling Irish rugby's ascent from pretenders to contenders.