Former Irish Rugby coach, Eddie O’Sullivan will give his first television interview since his resignation in the opening installment of RTÉ’s new ‘One to One’ series on Monday week.
Reflecting on what happened to the Irish team during last year’s World Cup, the Youghal man admits to journalist John Murray that “the preparations… went drastically wrong and the decisions I made backfired… the alarm bells went off for me before the World Cup when we had two warm-up games. If I had it back, re-wind the tape, give me the World Cup back again, I would have done it differently. I would have played four warm-up games, but the die was cast.”
Both Brian O’Driscoll and Ronan O’Gara have since spoken in similar terms about the build-up to France, with the Irish captain citing the lack of action, even in practice, the players had in advance. Indeed, the gym bunnies didn’t touch a ball for two whole months last summer, ‘BOD’ revealed – though no-one complained to the coach at the time.
Seems that, unlike the modern GAA player, those playing professional team sports in this country are often too passive for their own good.
