O'Sullivan: I'm staying put

1/10/2007 7:36:17 AM
PA Sport

Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan has vowed to see out his contract and insisted a horrendous World Cup has not diminished his hunger for the job.

The Irish were dumped out of the tournament with a 15-30 loss to Argentina, which now faces Scotland in a quarter-final at the Stade de France.

A team that arrived in France with pretensions of reaching the semi-finals has instead failed to reach the knockout stages for the first time.

Their abysmal form throughout the tournament has cranked up the pressure on O'Sullivan, who was awarded a four-year extension to his contract last month - before the World Cup had started.

But while O'Sullivan admitted the last four weeks have been a bitter disappointment, he refused to contemplate the end of his reign as Ireland coach.

"I'm totally committed to this job. I still have a contract to run and every intention of seeing it though," he said.

"I have the appetite for the job and I want to see it out. This has been a tough World Cup, no question about it."

"Things haven't gone to plan but that's no reason to walk away."

"I've never walked away from a challenge in my life and I don't intend to start now."

Skipper Brian O'Driscoll, who scored Ireland's first try, absolved O'Sullivan of blame for the team's performance.

A hallmark of their World Cup has been the failure of big names such as Gordon D'Arcy and Ronan O'Gara to justify their reputations and O'Driscoll admitted the players had not delivered.

"It feels very low to be knocked out of the World Cup. It's the second time I've felt this way at the hands of Argentina," said the Leinster skipper.

"It's obviously one of the lower points in my career. The full disappointment will kick in soon when we realise we're going home."

"It's tough to take but that's sport. If you don't perform you don't get the rewards. A lot of the onus has to go on the players."

"There's only so much coaching that can be done. The responsibility is on the 15 guys that take the field."

"We didn't front up enough during the four games. Maybe we played some half-decent rugby today but it was too little too late."

"As individual players we'll look back with disappointment at the way we played."

The demise of Ireland's World Cup aspirations could also spell the end of several playing careers with the team looking stale throughout - even against minnows Namibia and Georgia.

But O'Sullivan dismissed the suggestion of a clear-out, although he admitted the side had fallen well short of expectation.

"I have a lot of faith in this team. Less than six months ago this team was playing great rugby," he said.

"They haven't become a bad team in six months, that's for sure. There are a lot of great players in this side."

"We created a lot of expectation at this World Cup and we haven't lived up to it."

"But we created that expectation on the back of some good performances."

"We've fallen short of that and that's frustrating. You don't become a bad team overnight."

"We've always prided ourselves in our performances but we've come up short this time."