'I want it bad': why O'Connor feels ready to tame Lions

Perth Now

19-05-2025

Branding a British and Irish Lions series bigger than a Rugby World Cup, James O'Connor has revealed his sales pitch for a Test recall to Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt.
Thriving at the Crusaders, O'Connor says he has had a "good conversation" with Schmidt about suddenly being in the frame for a shock return for the Lions' blockbuster three-Test series in Australia this winter.
"I want it bad," the 34-year-old said after coming off the bench to play another starring cameo role in the Crusaders' 48-33 Super Rugby Pacific win over the NSW Waratahs last Friday.
"I'd love to be involved with the Wallabies again."
"I'm under no illusion that there's other guys who are playing really well and there's fresh young men and guys who are coming into their prime who are doing a great job for their clubs as well," O'Connor added.
"But I do feel like I could add something. Any part I can play to help us beat the Lions. I'm still bitter about the last tour, so I want us to get this win.
"I feel like I'm moving better than I have in a long time and I'm reinvigorated and keen to play."
It had been assumed the Wallabies' flyhalf role was a race in three between Noah Lolesio, Tom Lynagh and Ben Donaldson.
But, with none of the trio making compelling claims, O'Connor is adamant he could do the job and, as a 34-year-old Dan Carter proved at the 2015 World Cup for the All Blacks, having an older head could work for Schmidt.
O'Connor was only 23 when Robbie Deans thrust him into the No.10 role for the Wallabies' 2-1 series loss to the Lions in 2013.
The veteran feels a far more complete chief playmaker 12 years on, having only first been handed the flyhalf job on a two-Test spring tour in 2011.
"I was always in Robbie's ear to give me a crack," O'Connor said.
"In 2013, I didn't shy away from it but I had a chip on my shoulder, for sure, so I thought I was the greatest. I thought I could do the job.
"I had no idea about how to run a game or manage a game. That Lions series, it just showed me how much I didn't know."
O'Connor confessed to being schooled in the 41-16 third-Test loss in Sydney by wily Lions like Jonathan Davies and Brian O'Driscoll when the series was on the line.
"I didn't know what to do in that moment. I'd never been in it before and I wasn't smart enough, didn't have the game knowledge to be able to get that momentum back," he said.
His game-managing smarts came after he ventured overseas in 2013.
"Went to Toulon and started learning from Gits (Matt Giteau) and Jonny Wilkinson and even picking Ma'a Nonu's brain and Bryan Habana's and all those sort of guys," he said.
"I moved to Sale and I spent a lot of time with AJ MacGinty and also Faf de Klerk and understanding how they play the game and then I meshed it all into my own when I came back to the Reds."
"I'm not the finished product but I've been learning for the past five years."
Deployed mostly at fullback and centre at the 2011 and 2019 World Cups, O'Connor personally reckons a Lions series doesn't compare as equal to a global showpiece.
"It's bigger, man," he said. "World Cups are incredible but the Lions, I was blown away.
"I grew up watching league and union, but never really watched a Lions series before and the older players had said how big it was.
"But I was like, "Oh, look, I've done a World Cup before, cool, like it can't be bigger than a World Cup.
"But it's just two teams and I remember every place we were in, whether it was Brisbane or Melbourne or Sydney, it was just 60,000 people.
"Every time we left the hotel, we were just bombarded and it's not like the British are quiet. They're on the piss at 10am, so you're getting heckled just walking up the street.
"It was awesome, great banter, but it was quite overwhelming. Another level."