French kiss of life for O’Connor

JAMES O’Connor is yearning to have another crack at Super Rugby as “a new beast” with a more mature mindset and renewed passion for the game.

Few players have more to gain than the talented former Wallaby, with the chequered past, when the Brisbane Global Rugby Tens kicks off at noon today at Suncorp Stadium.

They might not have coincided but O’Connor falling out of love with rugby was mirrored by Australian rugby and many fans falling out of love with him.

Sport has an enormous power to reinvent and even heal its flawed performers.

O’Connor has been a positive breath of fresh air all week with French visitors Toulon and that maturity off the field is as important as any sizzle he shows on it.

Now 26, he gave the strong impression that the changes are more than skin deep.

“My mind is really good, I feel like a new beast and I’m ready to play,” the Gold Coast product said of a cathartic 18 months at Toulon. “It’s hard to say take a step back and breathe a little but I’d lost the passion for the game a bit ... and found it.

“No one teaches you how to deal with things when you become a professional athlete so early (at 17) and for me it was about finding love for the game again.”

The young, cocksure O’Connor wasn’t always listening when shrewd advice was doll-oped his way on just that issue but he seems to have found his own formula.

O’Connor credited longtime girlfriend Bridget Bauman for making him a more rounded person.

He is off contract in June and a third coming in Super Rugby is “definitely an option” after a flat 2015 foray with a poor Reds team on a bad knee.

Sources have confirmed he has offers in Europe and Japan and tentative interest from Super Rugby clubs who once considered him a no-go zone.

“I don’t know what the future holds but I’d like to win a title (with Toulon), play some good rugby and talk to the guys upstairs later,” O’Connor said.

The old O’Connor would have sidestepped yesterday’s Triple M radio interview with former Wallaby Greg Martin after he called him a “little punk” during their 2015 slanging match.

Instead, O’Connor is mending bridges everywhere as a great sign for his future. “I don’t want to carry that *&^# around. I want to move on because I wasn’t blameless,” O’Connor said.