France playing mind games
Laporte criticised Ireland earlier this week when he backed English coach Andy Robinson in his now famous dressing-down of South African referee Jonathan Kaplan for his performance in Dublin a fortnight ago.
However, the French coach took the criticism to new boundaries and O'Sullivan believes it is all a ploy to put pressure on today's referee Tony Spreadbury of England.
"I was pretty amazed that he (Laporte) felt he had to comment on a game that he had no involvement in and on a referee who will have no involvement in this match.
"Bernard is mischievously trying to put pressure on Tony Spreadbury - that's my take on it. If you look at his statement he gives his hand away by talking about players coming around the sides of rucks 10 times without being penalised.
"That had nothing to do with the English game, nothing to do with the complaints made by Andy Robinson afterwards. Andy was on about totally different issues and focused in on whether England were justified in the claims for a couple of tries. His complaints had nothing to do with anything else. My take on it is that Bernard felt he had logic in making those statements.
"I don't like that he felt the need to bring up things like that and I don't think it will work. Tony Spreadbury is a world class referee who does a very good job and calls things as he sees them happening."
O'Sullivan refrained from making observations about Spreadbury's galling habit of talking his way through a game but did say he was due to speak to the referee prior to this afternoon's game.
"As usual, we will have a chance to discuss what his interpretation of certain aspects will be, but we have had him as referee on numerous occasions and I don't think there will be any problem in knowing exactly what and what will not be tolerated."
O'Sullivan is peeved at what he believes is a new trend for coaches to make after-match comments on referees and says it is worrying.
"I have been involved in plenty of games when I wasn't happy with referees but my view is that it should be discussed between the coach and the referee, it's private business and shouldn't become a huge public issue. That's not good for the game."
Whatever happens this weekend between Ireland and France, Scotland and Wales, O'Sullivan is convinced there will be no war of words before the Six Nations grand-finale next weekend.
"I'm not the kind of guy to get into a war of words with other coaches but you do sometimes have to respond. I know Mike Ruddock (the Wales coach) is a stand up guy and I don't think it will happen in Cardiff. I don't think there will be any issues like this next week."
Aside from that off-field confrontation, O'Sullivan expects another huge battle today. He accepted that Ireland had not yet reached the potential he expected of them but said he was happy with the results to date.
"I think we have had three very different types of challenge so far. We were slow out of the blocks against Italy but we expected a difficult game anyway in Rome. We lost both Brian (O'Driscoll) and Gordon (D'Arcy) for the Scottish match and had to slightly vary our game plan. Any team that comes away from Murrayfield with a win and 40 points in the bag has to be happy.
"I suppose we had to defend more against England than anyone else but I was delighted with the way our defence held up and I would have to say that I believe England played better against us than in any of their two previous games."
Whatever his view on Laporte's comments, O'Sullivan is clear on one thing: "We have got to remain focused as we have done throughout the autumn series and the first three games in the championship. It's all about taking one step at a time because this is a pretty hard tournament to win."
As one of Clive Woodward's main coaching anchors in New Zealand this summer, O'Sullivan was understandably slow to predict how many Irish will be in the Lions squad: "A lot of Irish guys have put their hands up. If the team continues to perform, there should be a decent Irish representation on that plane."
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