O'Connell - I've learnt from 2005 tour - Sport in brief

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Sir Clive Woodward took a bloated squad to New Zealand and watched as his poorly-selected and badly-prepared Lions were whitewashed in the Test series.

"It was an experience in 2005. Luckily I've gone on since that tour to have a successful career," said O'Connell. "No player's career is up-up-up. You have to take the rough with the smooth."

He added: "A lot of the players came back and bounced back - we won a Heineken Cup with Munster and had a good year.

"Clive tried something different by taking a lot of players and coaching staff.

"On paper it was probably a good idea because it's such an attritional game now.

"But the trade off is you don't get to gel as a team because there are so many players. We didn't gel as well as we would have liked.

"Gelling is the most important thing to the success of the team."

Head coach Ian McGeechan opted for O'Connell over his closest rival Brian O'Driscoll because he will operating at the coalface against the ever-physical Springboks.

"The important thing was having a real focus in the forwards," said McGeechan. "Paul's had a fantastic Six Nations. He's a strong character and has a huge amount of respect which is important."