Besieged O'Sullivan deflects flak
Besieged O'Sullivan deflects flak
23/09/2007 8:05:00 AM
PA Sport
Eddie O'Sullivan is confident he retains the backing of Irish rugby chiefs and declared the inquest into a dismal World Cup would not open until the end of the tournament.
Ireland's ambitions of qualifying for the quarter-finals were left teetering on the brink of ruin at the Stade de France after the hosts coasted to a 25-3 triumph.
A shambolic group campaign should finally be put out of its misery a week tomorrow with Argentina poised to deliver the mortal blow at the Parc des Princes.
Pressure is mounting on O'Sullivan, who was curiously handed a four-year contract extension by the Irish Rugby Football Union last month before the World Cup had started.
The new deal raised eyebrows when it was first announced, but the baffling timing now looks even more premature following three desperate displays.
Questioned on the contract for the first time during the World Cup, O'Sullivan insisted there would be no knee-jerk reactions to events of the past two weeks.
When asked if he thought the vultures were circling, O'Sullivan replied: "No, I think the IRFU gave me the four years because they want me to do the job the four years." "Everyone knew this was the toughest pool in the World Cup - and we're not out of the tournament yet." "Maybe we should wait for the requiem until we're out of it. For now its onwards and upwards and we'll leave the review until after the tournament."
Few are backing Ireland to upset Argentina on the final day of the group stages, let alone secure the vital try-scoring bonus point. O'Sullivan hoped the sloppy, error-strewn victories over Namibia and Georgia were just aberrations, but against France it was clear their decline is terminal.
Despite a definite improvement on the opening two pool matches, they were confronted by the realisation they are just not good enough to progress to the knockout stages.
Tired, stale and disillusioned, by the end of the night Ireland looked a side that has been together too long, and an appalling World Cup will surely have brought a conclusion to some careers.
The permutations required against Argentina look beyond them but O'Sullivan is ready to go for broke in a last-ditch effort to reignite the nation's fading quarter-final dreams.
"We have a mountain to climb against Argentina, there's no doubt about that. We have a week to figure out how to go about that one," he said. "We can score five tries against Argentina. It won't be easy, but it's possible." "There will be a lot of speculation if we can achieve that goal or not. The trick for us is to put together a high-risk strategy to enable us to do that.""It might be a high-risk strategy, but that's what we have to go with.""People outside the camp may have given up hope but inside the camp we haven't. The players are very disappointed but we'll get them back on their feet."
O'Sullivan must somehow lift a squad low in confidence and besieged by off-field problems before the return to Paris. Given how far off the pace Ireland was against France he can take few crumbs of comfort from a deflating evening that made a mockery of semi-final pretensions.
Vincent Clerc, who broke Irish hearts at Croke Park in February, raced in another two tries in a one-sided second half. But it was Clerc's Toulouse team-mate Jean-Baptiste Elissalde who laid the foundations by kicking five penalties that edged the hosts into unassailable lead.
Ireland managed just a solitary Ronan O'Gara drop goal in response and O'Sullivan felt they paid the price for their unusually poor discipline. "It was a better performance than the previous two weeks and it needed to be. But our discipline was very bad," he said. "We had 13 penalties against us last night, seven in the first half, six in the second. We gave France seven kicks at goal and they converted five of them. That 15 points was the killer." "In terms of not getting into the game, our line-out didn't fire and we lost five out of 20 line-outs."
Leinster fullback Girvan Dempsey took a bang on his collar bone during Clerc's second try and his fitness will be assessed over the coming days.