Six Nations Ireland Blues

So the 2008 6 Nations Championship ends with Wales winning a Grand Slam and Ireland a pretty poor 4th place. Not only did we only manage to get wins over Scotland and Italy, but over the course of the entire tournament we played unimaginative and undistinguished rugby.

After the Scotland game, we were being talked up again, not least by Eddie O'Sullivan. However, in doing that, it struck me that experience and expertise don't seem to translate into an ability to analyse in an objective way the evidence of one's eyes. We beat Scotland comfortably on the scoreboard but the reality was that we were dominated in most aspects of the game and if Scotland had had a cutting edge we would have been well and truly beaten. Against Italy the same thing could be said, while it was only against France that we dominated any of our opponents (and even then France still won).

Ireland have been running on empty since the end of the 2007 6 Nations. Quite clearly an infusion of new ideas and new blood is required. To all those who say that Eddie has done great things for Ireland and point to his win/loss statistics, I would just say this: the coach of any sporting team has one job and one job only - that is to consistently get the best out of his players. Has O'Sullivan achieved this? Quite clearly he has not. Because of his failure in this regard, Ireland have only won 3 Triple Crowns under his tenure. Regardless of what Tony Ward and others might think, that is a paltry return in an era when England, France and Wales have all won Grand Slams, Championships and World Cups between them. Have we been poorer than those teams since 2001/2 in terms of personnel? I certainly suggest not.

It's not rocket science: Ireland need a modern and innovative coach who can provide inspiration, is not afraid of change and promotes players on the basis of form and ability. I have to hope that the IRFU confines to the dustbin their stated intention of promoting Irish coaches because there is not a single Irish coach who could bring Ireland on to the next level the way that Pat Howard, Wayne Smith, John Mitchell or even Matt Williams could.