If ever you wanted a demonstration of what Eddie O'Sullivan's tenure as Ireland coach did to this particular Leinster rugby blogger, you need only to read this account of our corresponding match in the 2008 Six Nations Championship with our Celtic cousins from the valleys. Just what was I thinking when I made the suggestion at the end? Eddie really did make me foolish!
Of course if you’ve read this blog before now you’ll be expecting an Eddie-bashing-fest from me, and you can be sure I won’t let you down on that score.
First, however, I have to extend my heartfelt congratulations to the Welsh.
You should have seen Sinnotts at 12 noon yesterday. As you walked down the stairs into the place you’d have sworn that you just walked through some kind of wormhole and ended up in downtown Cardiff!
The sea of red jerseys throughout the pub was almost embarrassing!
But on to the action. Yes, I know my prediction was wrong, but no prizes for guessing why I think it was!
I’m no expert on coaching by any means, but I think I know enough about it to at least say the following…
When preparing for a match, you have your gameplan, and you drill your players into executing it.
Of course, you should also be aware that your opposite number also has a gameplan, and for the first fifteen to twenty minutes of the contest, you will both see how those plans stack up against each other.
THEN you should be aware that if your preparation seems to be working, your nemesis is going to react and change things around.
Surely you should be ready for this and be able to adapt accordingly.
THIS is where Eddie has failed. After four years at the helm, when he was supposed to prepare us for a World Cup tournament, we played four matches in France and not ONCE did we appear to have a Plan B.
Then he called the World Cup a blip and a lot of us gave him the benefit of the doubt, even if only a Six Nations Championship trophy would offer him redemption.
Well much like Shane Horgan’s attempt at a try, O’Sullivan has fallen short yet again, and it all seems to point to his own handling of the game from the sidelines.
We were all over them from the start. They were actually rattled. Steve Jones was all fingers and thumbs, even when he was kicking. O’Gara on the other hand was showing an immaculate touch placing the ball at will around the field.
But even though Mike Phillips’ moment of madness cost them an easy three points before the break, surely we should have been ahead by more than 6 to 3?
It all seemed to hinge on how we handled the man advantage from the re-start, and when you look at what transpired, it’s clear that Warren Gatland gave the better half-time talk.
Look at the facts – we played HALF of the second period with a man advantage, yet we couldn’t put together any kind of move that looked like breaking their line.
O’Driscoll was responsible for my most frustrating moment when he needlessly flung the ball behind him as he was going out of play – surely an experienced international like himself would have known we badly needed a regular spell of possession and throwing a blind pass was no way to ensure that?
If the captain isn’t firing on all cylinders, what hope the rest of the XV?
Also, though I’m not suggesting he wasn’t injured, I thought it ironic that he limped off at a time we seemed to be doomed much like Dan Carter did for the All Blacks against the French in the World Cup quarterfinal.
So overall, while I have every respect for the Welsh and their achievements, in Croke Park they took what we gave them.
And although it was a wild challenge and actually deserved a yellow card, I sincerely hope Bernard Jackman isn’t blaming himself for the result.
What for the future? The IRFU should bite the bullet, get rid of O’Sullivan and bring in a fresh set of ideas, one of which could be to make Ronan O’Gara team captain.
What will ACTUALLY happen? The “old school tie” mentality that still pervades the game despite the professional era will rally around Eddie and he will keep his job right to the next World Cup and he may even get the Lions coaching job into the bargain in 2009.
The mind boggles.
At least we had some consolation in Sinnotts – you can be sure both Irish AND Welsh eyes were smiling at the result from Murrayfield!!!
First, however, I have to extend my heartfelt congratulations to the Welsh.
You should have seen Sinnotts at 12 noon yesterday. As you walked down the stairs into the place you’d have sworn that you just walked through some kind of wormhole and ended up in downtown Cardiff!
The sea of red jerseys throughout the pub was almost embarrassing!
But on to the action. Yes, I know my prediction was wrong, but no prizes for guessing why I think it was!
I’m no expert on coaching by any means, but I think I know enough about it to at least say the following…
When preparing for a match, you have your gameplan, and you drill your players into executing it.
Of course, you should also be aware that your opposite number also has a gameplan, and for the first fifteen to twenty minutes of the contest, you will both see how those plans stack up against each other.
THEN you should be aware that if your preparation seems to be working, your nemesis is going to react and change things around.
Surely you should be ready for this and be able to adapt accordingly.
THIS is where Eddie has failed. After four years at the helm, when he was supposed to prepare us for a World Cup tournament, we played four matches in France and not ONCE did we appear to have a Plan B.
Then he called the World Cup a blip and a lot of us gave him the benefit of the doubt, even if only a Six Nations Championship trophy would offer him redemption.
Well much like Shane Horgan’s attempt at a try, O’Sullivan has fallen short yet again, and it all seems to point to his own handling of the game from the sidelines.We were all over them from the start. They were actually rattled. Steve Jones was all fingers and thumbs, even when he was kicking. O’Gara on the other hand was showing an immaculate touch placing the ball at will around the field.
But even though Mike Phillips’ moment of madness cost them an easy three points before the break, surely we should have been ahead by more than 6 to 3?
It all seemed to hinge on how we handled the man advantage from the re-start, and when you look at what transpired, it’s clear that Warren Gatland gave the better half-time talk.
Look at the facts – we played HALF of the second period with a man advantage, yet we couldn’t put together any kind of move that looked like breaking their line.
O’Driscoll was responsible for my most frustrating moment when he needlessly flung the ball behind him as he was going out of play – surely an experienced international like himself would have known we badly needed a regular spell of possession and throwing a blind pass was no way to ensure that?
If the captain isn’t firing on all cylinders, what hope the rest of the XV?
Also, though I’m not suggesting he wasn’t injured, I thought it ironic that he limped off at a time we seemed to be doomed much like Dan Carter did for the All Blacks against the French in the World Cup quarterfinal.
So overall, while I have every respect for the Welsh and their achievements, in Croke Park they took what we gave them.
And although it was a wild challenge and actually deserved a yellow card, I sincerely hope Bernard Jackman isn’t blaming himself for the result.
What for the future? The IRFU should bite the bullet, get rid of O’Sullivan and bring in a fresh set of ideas, one of which could be to make Ronan O’Gara team captain.
What will ACTUALLY happen? The “old school tie” mentality that still pervades the game despite the professional era will rally around Eddie and he will keep his job right to the next World Cup and he may even get the Lions coaching job into the bargain in 2009.The mind boggles.
At least we had some consolation in Sinnotts – you can be sure both Irish AND Welsh eyes were smiling at the result from Murrayfield!!!
0 comments:
Post a Comment