IN PROFESSIONAL sport the coach is judged on performance and paid on results. International rugby is no exception.
Success is rewarded, defeat is punished and moral victories count for nothing. Irish rugby supporters are anxious, understandably, for real international success and dismayed by recent failure.
Eddie O'Sullivan was Ireland's most successful rugby coach. But he and his team peaked too early in his 6½-year tenure as national coach. The World Cup should have been the apex of the careers of the coach and a golden generation of Irish players. Instead it became the nadir of their fortunes. Great expectations were dashed by poor performances. Since then neither Mr O'Sullivan nor the Irish XV have redeemed themselves. In the recent Six Nations championship, Ireland won two out of five matches and finished fourth.
In the circumstances the coach's resignation was inevitable and overdue. Mr O'Sullivan had taken the team as far as he could in a professional sport which in his own words "is becoming more demanding and competitive". He can look back with pride on his coaching tenure and his many achievements, three Triple Crown successes, and many memorable victories. In his going, however, he finds himself cast in the role of involuntary scapegoat, ritually sacrificed to atone for the national team's poor performances. For these reverses he bears some, though by no means all, responsibility.
Certainly, as coach he made mistakes and misjudgments. His World Cup preparations were poor. His team selection and use of the squad was unimaginative and inflexible and suggested it was harder to get off the Irish team than to get on it. And his reluctance to use his reserve players was inexplicable. But if Mr O'Sullivan can be criticised, so can others, not least the players for their sub-standard performances.
The Irish Rugby Football Union's mishandling of matters must be questioned also. Its decision to renew the coach's contract, before and not after the World Cup, was a serious error of judgment. That was compounded later when IRFU chief executive Philip Browne viewed the Irish team's poor performance in France as a "blip" and not as a sporting debacle.
Perspective is important. Rugby is a sport - no more and no less. But one hopes lessons have been learned. Ireland's new coach must restore competition for team places with selection based on form and performance. And he must build a team that fulfils its potential. In Wales, Warren Gatland has shown the way.