The 35-year-old was considering coaching when he was offered one last job at the mighty Crusaders. It has on him on the verge of a Test recall.
James O’Connor in Crusaders colours, and playing for the Wallabies (right) against the Lions in 2013.Credit: Getty Images
The journey towards a rare second crack at the British and Irish Lions began for James O’Connor with serendipity and a campervan.
It was late 2024 and O’Connor was weighing up his next move in rugby. With Queensland backing its rookie class of Tom Lynagh and Harry McLaughlin-Phillips, the Wallabies veteran had departed Ballymore and had half-a-eye on a move into coaching. But, at only 34, O’Connor wasn’t quite ready to hang up the boots.
“I was moving well and I felt like I had some good footy left in me,” O’Connor said.
There were options in France, Japan and the USA, but the one that intrigued O’Connor the most was a faint nibble earlier in the year from the mighty Crusaders. The 14-time Super Rugby champions – who won the title in 2023 – had just had an uncharacteristically awful season and missed the finals, and were scouting around for a greybeard to replace the experience of departed All Blacks star Richie Mo’unga.
O’Connor was on post-season holidays when he got a call, and was asked if he could get to Christchurch to sit down with Crusaders coach Rob Penney.
No worries, O’Connor replied. See you shortly.
“I happened to be on a road trip in New Zealand in an RV with my wife,” O’Connor said. “And I was probably about an hour away at that stage, just over at Akaroa (east of Christchurch).
“So I drove over, literally pulled the RV up and met up with Rob, and it went really well. Then we all went out to dinner afterwards, and pretty much shook hands after that.
“It seemed a no-brainer to me. Go to the Crusaders for a year – I get to experience New Zealand Super Rugby, but also the most successful franchise in Super history.
“Go there and see what’s made them so successful: how do they keep churning out such good players? How are they playing so well as a team? What is the culture?
“Not only just for me rugby-wise, but also with that coaching element as well.”
News of O’Connor joining the Crusaders on a one-year deal was met mostly with curiosity on both sides of the Tasman, and the usual smattering of narky Kiwi talkback callers as well. James O’Connor? But few predicted what would happen next.
James O’Connor has been impressive off the bench for the Crusaders.Credit: Getty Images
The Crusaders have swiftly returned to full power output in 2025, and while that didn’t require the power of Nostradamus to foresee, the role of O’Connor in the revival certainly proved the surprising storyline.
Playing off the bench, O’Connor has become an artful practitioner of the finisher role in the last quarter of games; steering the Crusaders home with the considered option-taking honed in 64 Tests for the Wallabies, two World Cups, a Lions series and 18 years as a professional.
He nailed a post-siren goal in the rain to beat arch-rivals the Blues, and is now beloved by the Crusaders faithful. People began asking if he was All Blacks-eligible, and a video of a fan paying for his order at a McDonald’s drive through went viral.
O’Connor has been so effective for the Crusaders he has played himself firmly back into contention for a Wallabies squad recall, ahead of the Lions tour in June and July. He last played for Australia in 2022.
Knowing what it takes to succeed at the Crusaders, and to earn the praise of the Kiwi rugby cognoscenti as well, Joe Schmidt has spoken with O’Connor and last week admitted he was in the mix for selection.
If picked, it would be O’Connor’s second Test series against the Lions, after he played no.10 for the Wallabies in all three Tests of the 2013 series.
Double-Lions is a highly exclusive club, with currently only one member behind the rope: George Smith is still the only Wallaby to play against the Lions twice, a dozen years apart. James Slipper is also likely to join in 2025.
“I’m not gonna lie, part of me going to the Crusaders was wanting to play at that level again,” O’Connor said.
“I even had this chat with Les (Kiss) when I left, he was , ‘look if you actually want to have a crack of the Lions or playing with the Wallabies again, you’ve got to be playing top-level rugby’.
“So that was part of the decision to come to the Crusaders. Not that I was holding my breath, but I always felt I would love to have one more crack (for the Wallabies), and get a little do-over and play the rugby I know I can play for the group.
I always felt I would love to have one more crack (for the Wallabies), and get a little do-over.
James O’Connor
“I had a good chat with Joe, it’s still early days. He just said ‘I feel you’ve taken a lot of good options and you are playing some good footy’. It was more just gauging my interest and I was like ‘yeah I’d love to be involved’.”
O’Connor will be in Sydney on Friday night with the Crusaders. Impressing Schmidt isn’t high on the to-do list for O’Connor, but only because selflessness has proven to be the major reason the Wallabies coach is even watching.
When talking with Penney and Crusaders coaches early on, O’Connor was told they had a specific job in mind: the closer.
“They were like ‘this is where we’re losing games and this is an area we’d love you to own’,” O’Connor said.
“At the start, it wasn’t “hell yeah I want to be a finisher”. I was more I’d love to play in the ten spot. But again, the more I soaked up the environment and made it not about me, it was just what can I do for the team?
“It sounds very simple but I don’t think I’ve really ever had that mindset, fully.
“I have butchered it in the past off the bench, trying to do too much, overplaying.
“It’s just a little mindset shift but as soon made it, I really enjoyed the actual role. You’re coming on 20 or 30 to go and the game is in the balance, and pressure is on. You still feel you’re in there, you’re in the heat of the battle.
James O’Connor meeting the Queen as an 18-year-old on the Wallabies Spring Tour in 2008.,Credit: AP
“It’s a skill to learn how to finish the game. Not that I’ve mastered it at all, but it taken me a while to understand how to do it, and what is required in that moment. Not what’s best for me, what’s best for the team right now?”
A return to the Wallabies would be a third coming for O’Connor, who emerged as a precociously talented teenager in 2008 and became the second-youngest Wallaby ever. Robbie Deans predicted he would play 200 Tests but O’Connor flew too close to the sun, and left Australian rugby in 2013 after going off the rails.
But having grown up and matured, O’Connor returned to the Wallabies with great acclaim in 2019. Amid injury setbacks, his last Test for the Wallabies in 2022.
If O’Connor was to be tapped as a utility by Schmidt, it could have twice the yield: as much for his knowledge and mentorship, as his capacity to handle the nerve-shredding pressure of a Lions Test match.
James O’Connor after Australia’s win over the All Blacks in Perth in 2019.Credit: Stu Walmsley/Rugby AU Media
With a batch of youngish Wallabies playmaker, the value of having the then 23-year-old who had the same hotseat in 2013 being still around – and in the form to win earn a place in the squad – won’t be lost on Schmidt.
“In every way the boy then and the man here (today) are different,” he said.
“You only know what you know, so rugby-wise and off the field too. That was my journey and it went that way. But I wouldn’t change anything because I wouldn’t be where I am right now, if I didn’t go through that period of life.
“In terms of rugby knowledge, geez I could beat guys one-on-one quite well and still had a decent enough kicking game, but I knew nothing of how to manage a game. I was pretty green. It was the first time I’d been given the keys, so to speak.”
O’Connor had only played one Test in the no.10, in 2011, before the Lions series.
“I’d played quite a few times for my country and I played Super Rugby at 10 for a few years, but it is a very different game and one I didn’t even know about, because I didn’t have a growth mindset. I thought I knew it all by that stage. I was taught a lesson in that series and I’ve been taught a couple more lessons over the years.”
O’Connor will keep doing his thing for the Crusaders and if a call comes from Schmidt, he’ll be stoked. But he won’t be sweating on it. This year has emphasised the value, and the rewards, in putting team before self.
“I will just wait and see what comes, it’s almost that path-of-least resistance approach,” O’Connor said. “Let life surprise me. I’m enjoying the adventure.”
