O’Sullivan shows no mercy dropping Horgan and O’Kelly

CHRISTMAS or not, Eddie O’Sullivan showed no mercy yesterday when he omitted Anthony Horgan and Malcolm O’Kelly from the Irish squad for a pre-Six Nations training session at City West on December 29 and 30.

In announcing a 32-man squad, O’Sullivan revealed that Horgan, the Munster wing, and O’Kelly, the Leinster second-row, were being left out “for disciplinary reasons having missed a training session during last week’s fitness camp in Lanzarote.”

Whether the players themselves will regard the coach’s decision as a particularly severe “punishment” is a matter for speculation and it is difficult to imagine any long term implications for their respective international careers.