To discount Eddie O'Sullivan as yesterday’s man is to discount the single-most influential figure in Irish rugby over what has been a truly momentous decade, writes Peter O'Reilly in the Sunday Times.
"There’s a scene in Eddie O’Sullivan’s just-published autobiography Never Die Wondering which perfectly illustrates the precarious existence of the professional sports coach. It’s late one night in April and O’Sullivan is sitting alone in his one-room apartment in Boulder, Colorado, surfing the net for speculation on Ian McGeechan’s Lions squad, due to be announced the following day.
“I will admit to a wistful thought that it could have been me striding into that Heathrow hotel to announce my selection,” he writes. “Instead, I faced the more mundane business of haggling over the price of a rucking net and seeing if, perhaps, I could book a meeting room in Charleston free of charge.”
"How are the mighty fallen. When he returns to the US next month, O’Sullivan will be preparing coaches for an ‘A’ team tournament involving Canada, Argentina and the Eagles. That’s ‘A’ for anonymous. The highlight of the season is the back-to-back, do-or-die World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay in Montevideo and a venue yet to be decided. Should the Eagles qualify, they’ll end up in the same pool as Ireland. “Someone up there is having a joke at my expense,” O’Sullivan quipped this week."
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