Pausing for breath

Tony Leen speaks to Grand Slam chasing Irish rugby coach Eddie O’Sullivan about the obstacles already negotiated — and the ones still ahead.

MAYBE it was the chicken ciabatta, but I'm almost sure Eddie O'Sullivan stopped thinking about rugby for a moment or two last Wednesday.

Within minutes, though, he was, as he might say, locked and loaded once again.

"There is a certain amount of adrenalin from the job, but you have to be a workaholic, and I am. Sometimes you're tired and you'd love a day off, but it doesn't matter that much when you are doing something you love. It isn't like getting up in the morning and going to work."

The Ireland rugby coach enjoyed last Monday morning, if only for a bit. In his fourth Six Nations campaign as head coach, he is learning to enjoy the savoury moments of a seven-week war on the senses. Defeating a determined England certainly soothed the stress. But by Monday lunchtime, the focus had switched across the English channel.

"Almost by accident, France have got their best back line together over the three games the new full-back, Rougerie, Dominici, the midfielders Jauzion and Traille. And I wouldn't be surprised if he eventually starts Michalak this time. Suddenly, you've got the biggest, strongest, fastest back line in the Championship. It's going to a huge battle."

O'Sullivan was still digesting English men this week when someone wondered which French side would show up at Lansdowne Road next Saturday. "We've got to prepare for the France that played in the first half against Wales. If it doesn't, so be it. It might sound disparaging to Wales, but they were very lucky in the timing of their crucial scores. It meant France went from a position of walking away with the game to being behind just after half-time and they panicked a bit.

"Wales defended in the first half like I've never seen a team defend before at international level. They were incredible, scrambling to the point where once they got a sniff in the game, they felt they could go on and win it. How many teams could have lived with France in the first half? I don't know what it will all do to their confidence, but maybe the pressure is off a little for Laporte and the players now."

For O'Sullivan there is no such respite. Though he doesn't personally take responsibility for pumping the rugby balls, one senses he loves the detail of micro-management. However, he delegates to a burgeoning management structure that adores the minutiae as much as he does. Winning as frequently as this Irish side does, the Corkman is overseeing a golden era for Irish rugby. Three and a half years after replacing Warren Gatland, O'Sullivan has moved himself into a position of immense authority in the sport in this country.

"I'm 60-70% down the road in terms of an overall strategy," he reckons. "The Holy Grail is the World Cup and from a planning point of view, it's about having the right team going to France (in 2007) and developing our game to another level.

"Our defence has come on in leaps and bounds, and I'm trying to put more flexibility into our attacking game. There is also the mental side that is about the players being happy to compete as favourites and execute under pressure.

"It doesn't mean you can't go out and have a bad game, but by and large we have become consistent. Now we want to bring that to the next level. It's a chicken and egg situation the more you win, the more you learn, the more confident you become, the more consistent you get. But, remember, it's a cycle of decline the other way."

The reaction of some lazy elements of the English press to last Saturday's defeat was instructive. The notion of the Paddy ambush is alive and well on a few London sports desks.

"The benchmark is consistency, and we are now consistently beating sides we are better than, i.e., we are winning as favourites. The games we have lost, we haven't been annihilated, and we've won games we shouldn't have. All that takes you out of the one trick pony department and it's a bit harsh to be talking about another smash and grab for Ireland. I do think we're gone past that now."

Part of the secret is part of the problem. This Ireland side has accumulated a lot of experience and a lot of caps, and has developed a happy knack of winning the tight games. However, much like the England side that was stuck together with masking tape by the time it clinched the World Cup in Australia, there is a sense of alarm about Ireland's age profile.

"The 2007 World Cup is something we are already thinking about, but if you focus too much on something that far away, you might never get there. In the short term, you've got to keep getting results, and thereafter you can think about filtering the guys who will be going to the World Cup. After this year we will start making those changes in earnest. But at the moment there is the chance of winning something special and it would be foolish to start dismantling the team."

Where there is concern about the general age profile of the squad, there is an acute sense of anxiety about the front row, something O'Sullivan understands.

"We're in pretty good shape generally. If you look at the profile of our back line, there is a good gang of them in their mid-20's, and some more coming through in that area. In the pack, there may be a few guys there won't make the next World Cup, but you have Marcus Horan, Frankie Sheahan, Paul O'Connell is only 25, Donncha O'Callaghan, and there is plenty of back rows coming through.

"The problem is that there is nothing coming through in the front row. It is the one area we are struggling with. Marcus is the youngest front row, Reggie Corrigan's the wrong side of 30. John Hayes should be okay to go to World Cup, but there's nothing I can do at the moment. It's my problem, but it's not my fault because it's a developmental issue."

With no heir apparent to Hayes, Ireland's emergency strategy is probably to switch Corrigan to tight head and bring in Marcus Horan at loose. However, longer term, the IRFU may have to go the road of passport-hunting.

A fit and thriving Hayes was part of an inspiringly disciplined defensive effort against the English last Saturday that underscored the value of Mike Ford's role as defensive coach. "We conceded very few penalties because we listened to (referee) Kaplan. I was actually amazed at some of the silly penalties England conceded. Usually they are a lot smarter than that, but when a team is struggling you will take that extra chance, hold onto the ball a bit longer. The most enjoyable thing was beating an English side that played well. At Twickenham last year, the general opinion was that they had played poorly, and we took advantage."

A biting self-critic, O'Sullivan feels he is better at keeping emotion in check nowadays, and though he empathises with Andy Robinson's frustration after the 19-13 defeat, he doesn't condone it.

"The RFU have to investigate Andy's comments. If you are just going to harangue a referee because you don't like the call, you'll have anarchy. It's the same in every professional sport. We've often got bad calls that have really annoyed me, but I had to take it on the chin. Nowadays I go away and think about it, and when I calm down I might still be aggrieved, but I'll know it was the right think to say nothing because I'd have gone over the top at the time with emotion."

Though he was a decent Munster back, O'Sullivan was always more about clipboards and patterns than jinking runs. He was barely into his thirties when he was drafted in as fitness adviser to Ciaran Fitzgerald's 1991 World Cup squad. His work complete in the build-up, O'Sullivan used his free time during the tournament to deepen his dossier of knowledge.

A BACK by trade and inclination, ex-Ireland forwards recall him sitting on top of the scrummaging machines, asking Fitzgerald about the complexities of the line-out and scrum.

"And he knew the proper questions to ask," said one veteran prop. "He could have had a lot of spare time on his hands, but he was involved every day from the get-go."

By the time he was appointed assistant to Warren Gatland almost a decade later, O'Sullivan had established himself as a coach with an excellent grasp of rugby's nuances.

"My job today is creating the best possible platform for the team to perform on. When they trot out onto the pitch, they must have had the best preparation possible to give the performance of their lives and that goes from making sure the footballs are pumped to the right pressure, that the moves are right in the back line, the line-out, even the food before the game. I can't do all that, so I've got to get the right people around me, which I have.

"I still love coaching though, being on the pitch during the week. That's the buzz part. I think I've become a better tactician, because you simply have to nowadays. Rugby is changing, literally on a month-to-month basis, and if you step away from it for six months, you'd be amazed how far back you would fall. It isn't just the laws are changing, it's the interpretation of the laws. There's no question of standing still, you are either going backwards or forwards.

"I spend a lot of time talking and learning from Niall (O'Donovan) and Mike (Ford), as well as the kicking coaches. I am very much the hub of the coaching team, but none of us are happy to be learning off other people any more. I want us to innovate as well, to have the best systems, not the one that looks like England or New Zealand. People look at our line-out and they are envious of it, because it's the best in the world. But that's because Niall O'Donovan has worked tirelessly on it. It's all a work in progress it never stops."

For the Ireland coach, it doesn't. France on Saturday, a potential Grand Slam head to head a week later in Cardiff. And the Lions tour to New Zealand on the horizon.

"It's not something I can think about at the moment. (Head coach Clive) Woodward is actually coming in next week to spend time with the Ireland squad, but in terms of pure Lions business, we've had one staff meeting before Christmas, which was really a getting to know you exercise.

"But once we're finished in Cardiff, there's a two month window, and in fairness to Clive, he has put very little pressure on me."

And then he was off, not to Ireland camp, but to domestic solitude in Galway for a day or two. His wife and two children know the score, and they bond tightly when he's at home.

"They know me," he sighs. "I've been a road warrior for as long as I can remember."