don't want this to sound like sour grapes but when I look back on my situation in 2001 I was deeply disappointed not to have my contract renewed but the success Ireland have enjoyed since then brooks no argument and I was fortunate to go on and enhance my coaching education with Wasps.
However, I have to question the IRFU's decision in giving Eddie O'Sullivan a four-year extension at this point and wonder if the timing of that agreement has been counterproductive for Ireland in terms of the World Cup.
Eddie O'Sullivan has been in charge for six years and it takes a special person to keep developing a team, generating new ideas, fostering new challenges. I think it has given the team a false sense of security. Any extension of the coach's contract should have been done after the World Cup following a debriefing on the performances and the results achieved. And the performances.
There's been a lack of edge to the Ireland displays and the team need to be shaken from that torpor. Staleness has crept in and the enthusiasm and drive that have underpinned recent Ireland successes isn't apparent. The environment has become too cosy and there's a sense that one of the essentials in any Ireland team is missing: it's a team that's not playing for each other and that's evident in some of the body language.
Munster manage it year after year but there have been fresh voices during that period of success. This has been the best prepared Ireland team in terms of World Cups and the expectations have been huge. The challenge for Eddie now is to find the solution, the kernel of the problem. There will be players in the squad who think they can provide that solution and it's up to the coach to make a value judgment. In terms of team selection over the first two games, he's now backed himself into a corner.
(Warren Gatland)
__________________
Stevieg "That's for liking Chris De Burgh you cunts"
ringstein *meltdown*
CTID
PSG Till I Die, like a BOSS
Champion of the INTERNET
He got our last win in France before being shafted and made 10 or 11 changes for the game after a few terrible performances. Would be nice if history repeated itself except only 1 change not due to injury, we'll lose and cunty Eddie will keep his job.
__________________
Kent Brocman after the St. Patrick's day parade turned into a riot: "All this drinking, violence, destruction of property - Are these really the things we think of, when we think of the Irish?"
Gatters get stuck in: Irish Times today
Linear Mode
