News article – Style E 3443

“We were out for a run on Friday and I felt there was a good balance between the tension and the confidence and that’s the key. Fellas were confident about how they were going to play but there was a nice bit of tension in the air as well. And I just had a good feeling about it”. said Eddie O’Sullivan from the quiet of his home in Moylough, Co Galway.

“The space against England is right out in the outside trams and it takes a lot of confidence to play it out wide because they’re very good at taking the ball off you. You’ve really got to believe in what you’re doing. Having said that, it rained before the game and that made it difficult. So we ended up changing the tactics slightly to mixing it, to putting it out wide, to taking it up the middle or putting it in the corners.

” To be fair to the players on the field it’s down to them to make those decisions and I thought Ronan in particular, amongst others, made some brave decisions at key times in the game.

” The kick in front of the posts was an awful one to shank but to his credit he bounced back. The kick just before half time was crucial with them in the lead and then the conversion was also crucial to give us the buffer. Those two kicks to me were top drawer. There was incredible pressure with those and he nailed both of em”.

O’Sullivan pointed to the lineout as an area crucial to the outcome of this game.”
Our line-out, to be fair, has probably been the best line-out in the world for the last year. We have some great line-out players. O’Connell, O’Kelly, O’Callaghan, – all the O’s -and Easterby are really world class line out jumpers. Then we have great lifters like Hayes and Corrigan to get them up in the air.

But then two years ago our line-out wasn’t functioning, it’s taken two years but it has come right and Niall O’Donovan must take a lot of credit there. He’s done a phenomenal job”.

So, having come through a game that few outside their own close group gave them any hope of winning, the media talk now is of the Triple Crown but O’Sullivan will be the last to buy into that. ” Look, I hadn’t really given it a thought because it was never on till we beat England. Then after the game someone said it to me and I thought, yeh, it’s definitely on now.

“But at the same time we still have one more game before the Triple Crown game and that’s Italy and we certainly wouldn’t want to foul up now. Italy are a dangerous enough team as we saw at the weekend when they put Scotland away. They’re often underrated as a side. I certainly don’t want to trip up in the next game in Dublin. Just want to do a good job that day and then we can worry about Triple Crowns after”.