Eddie O'Sullivan

by Eddie O'Sullivan

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As the longest-serving national coach in Irish rugby history, Eddie O’Sullivan produced a team that rose to third in the world rankings and laid down the standards for the team to fulfil its Grand Slam potential. Added to the three Triple Crowns he won in his six-year reign and the Corkman ought to enjoy legendary status in his homeland. But the reality has been rather different for O’Sullivan. In fact, few figures in Irish sport divide opinion quite like the man who coached the so-called ‘golden generation’ of Irish rugby through seven Six Nations’ Championships. Ireland’s abject performance at the ‘07 World Cup in France prompted extraordinary levels of criticism and O’Sullivan took the brunt of it. His team had gone to the tournament considered among the favourites for the title after a storming Six Nations tournament in which they slaughtered England by thirty points on an emotion-charged day at Croke Park. Indeed, O’Sullivan was thought at the time to be a likely Lions coach for the ‘09 tour to South Africa. Yet, Ireland failed to get out of the so-called ’Group of Death’ and that failure precipitated O’Sullivan’s fall.
Here, for the first time, he talks of the spectacular unravelling of confidence within probably the best Irish team in history and the vitriol it decanted. He talks candidly of the bizarre rumour mill that followed the Irish team through that World Cup tournament and takes us behind the scenes of a story that tossed an entire nation into mourning. O’Sullivan writes with surprising candour about his relationships with his successor as Irish coach, Declan Kidney, and indeed his predecessor, Warren Gatland. He describes his early struggle for recognition in the Irish game when the absence of a traditional rugby background militated against him. His autobiography flies in the face of so many stubborn preconceptions. O’Sullivan pulls no punches on the people he rates in rugby and the people he doesn’t. Hear the story of the rise of one of Irish rugby’s great outsiders and, ultimately, his crushing fall.