Out of our misery

IRELAND were yesterday finally put out of their World Cup misery in the concrete cauldron that is the Parc des Prince on big match day. Just as they could never beat France here between 1972 and 1996, they crashed this time to the Pumas from South America who have now eliminated them from two of the last three competitions.

The recriminations and post mortems are already underway with the country as a whole seemingly screaming for Eddie O’Sullivan’s head. Will it roll? The coach himself insists he is here for the long haul: “I am totally committed to this job. I still have a contract to run and I have every intention of running it through. I have the appetite for the job and I want to see it out. This has been a tough World Cup, I admit that, and things haven’t gone according to plan but that’s no reason to walk away. I never walked away from a challenge in my life and I’m not going to start now.”

Fighting words indeed and having been granted a four year extension to his contract just prior to the World Cup, it is hardly likely that his employers at Lansdowne Road will have a change of heart. At the very least, it would cost them a fortune and, of course, they’re not the kind of people to admit that they got it wrong.