O’Shea’s focus on job at Harlequins

Harlequins director of rugby Conor O’Shea has politely distanced himself from speculation linking him to the job of Ireland’s head coach and laughed off further rumours he could move to assist Stuart Lancaster at England.

The former Leinster and London Irish full-back has been mooted as a possible replacement for Declan Kidney at the IRFU and as a member of Lancaster’s backroom staff at Twickenham. But O’Shea, whose side hosts Munster in the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup at the Twickenham Stoop on Sunday in a bid to reach their first semi-final in the club’s history, has deflected the conjecture.

“I have said it before; I am going nowhere,” O’Shea said regarding replacing Kidney.