Ian McGeechan’s reveals a major mix up almost prevented Paul O’Connell captaining the Lions

We're expecting to hear a lot more legendary stories about Paul O'Connell's phone manner in the coming days.

The ex-Munster man's Test career is over after confirmation on Tuesday that he suffered a horrendous hamstring injury in last Sunday's win over France. The second-row leaves the international sphere after an incredible 13 years that saw him capped 108 times for his country, and also lead out the British and Irish Lions on their 2009 tour of South Africa. But it seems that he wasn't utterly convinced when Lions head coach Ian McGeechan called him about the role, due to a major mix-up in their first phone conversation. We don't blame the Limerick man for being a bit suspicious when an unknown number popped up on his phone, but we're not sure of his excuse for cutting off the legendary coach twice before eventually realising it wasn't a wind-up. The Scot descibed to Off The Ball last night O'Connell's cagey reaction to their first phone calls in 2009:

"The first time I rang him to tell him he was captain he thought I was an insurance man from England trying to sell him insurance.  He was always wary of UK numbers so it took me three go's to get through to him. But I came across and to Ireland and we spent a day together just talking about what we wanted to do and how we wanted to achieve that."

Face to face conversations are always better, regardless of whether you're selling a Lions captaincy or insurance.