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O'Sullivan cautious about Irish chances Posted: Saturday February 15, 2003 7:35 AM
Rugby World's Tom English finds Eddie O'Sullivan cautious about resurgent Ireland's Six Nations chances. Ireland's view of itself as a rugby nation has changed with the wind for as long as any of us can remember. One big win and delusions of grandeur envelope the nation; one crushing defeat and the players get the criticism with both barrels. The autumn Tests illustrates the point. Ireland played Romania, Russia and Georgia in September and all three performances -- in which O'Sullivan fielded his strongest possible XV -- were deemed unimpressive. September was a bad month in the coaching reign of O'Sullivan. His team appeared to be on the slide, his tactics looked predictable and his team selection conservative. O'Sullivan didn't fret and planned for the arrival of the Wallabies in November, whom they hadn't beaten since 1979. The rest, as they say, is history as Ireland pulled off a superb victory. Tactically, Ireland were vastly superior to the world champions. Defensively, they were extraordinary, Mike Ford's new system paying dividends at last, and if O'Sullivan had shown a reluctance to experiment in September, he took a massive gamble by moving Victor Costello, a No 8 all his playing life, to the blindside. The coach was inviting trouble on himself had things not worked out. As it happened, Costello was magnificent. Two weeks later, Ireland defeated the Pumas, their nemesis at the last World Cup. Once again the defensive effort was watertight and the set-piece was nigh on flawless. Both out of touch and in the scrum, they had clearly made giant strides -- all of it done with the splendid Shane Byrne filling in for the injured Keith Wood. Time was when Ireland could not function without their captain. Now they don't miss him. How O'Sullivan follows the autumn glory is a question that is on everybody's mind. "It's different this time because it's happening over seven weeks, and that schedule is going to be very demanding on the Celtic nations. We don't have the depth of squad that England and France do, so we'll really be praying for a rub of the green injuries-wise. It's going to be a torrid affair, a ferociously difficult couple of months because there is not a ton of difference between the sides." Damaged consistently by injury in last year's championship, it's a case of 'here we go again' for O'Sullivan this time. Paul O'Connell, the thunderous second-row from Munster, has already been ruled out for the first two Tests and there is a considerable doubt about Wood, too. There is nothing surer but that others will follow them on to the treatment table between now and then. Ireland's beginning is not easy. They start with two away fixtures, in Edinburgh and Rome, the opening tie being on Sunday, giving them a mere six-day lead-in to the second against Italy. "It's particularly difficult in that we have to do the maximum amount of travelling in a six-day spell. If we pick up injuries in Scotland then we might find ourselves scrambling a little bit. "Starting in Scotland will help focus our minds, though. If we begin with a win then that hopefully will set the foundation for a good championship. If we lose then you have precious little time to circle the wagons before Italy. Given our record in Murrayfield (no win since 1985), we are going to be up against it. Scotland are always difficult to beat at home. They seem to believe that they have a divine right to beat us and the problem over the years is that we've tended to believe it, too. "We've gone into a lot of games in Scotland as hot favourites and have come out of them with our tails between our legs. We've got to face up to that. In a lot of the matches, it hasn't even been a one-score loss." O'Sullivan remains optimistic but cautious of the Six Nations' ability to inflict pain on any team on any day.
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