RUGBY NEWS:IT'S A new deal, a new challenge. Largely amateur players in a rugby-playing population that is spread all over a massive country will make new USA coach Eddie O'Sullivan a busy man. The coaching job is far from the rugby dynamic that pertained in Ireland with US hot spots spread between centres in California, Chicago, Boston, New York, Texas and Colorado. There will be no quick days trips up to Ravenhill or down to Thomond Park.
However, over the next few weeks when the former Irish coach settles into his new offices in Boulder, Colorado, one of his first tasks is to plan the downfall of an Ireland team (without their Lions players) that travels to California for a meeting in Santa Clara on May 31st.
“You couldn’t have planned that,” says O’Sullivan. “And hopefully we will be meeting Ireland as Grand Slam Champions. But it’s not the first time that it has happened.
“When I was assistant coach to the US team in 1999 we played Ireland and stood in Lansdowne Road listening to Amhrán Na bhFainn. But yes it will be strange to coach against Ireland. Unusual to put it mildly.”
The USA are currently ranked at 19 in the world and while thoughts of getting the ranking back to where it was at around 13 or 14, when he was last involved with the side prior to his stint with Ireland, O’Sullivan’s first priority is for the US to take part in the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
“The first thing is to qualify for the next World Cup with games against Canada back-to-back in Charleston and Edmonton,” he says.
“It’s worked on an aggregate score and if we win we qualify. If not then we go into a rêpechage against a team like Chile or Uruguay. That’s the first priority, the World Cup. Getting the ranking up will be more long term.”
O’Sullivan will move over without his family as his children are still at school and college in Ireland. His contract will roll until after the 2011 competition.
“It’s obviously going to be different,” he says.
“Some players are playing professionally overseas but most are playing domestically in what is called the super league here. There are similar problems as before because some of the players have regular jobs so you’ve got to be smart about it.
“The game standard has improved, especially at collegiate level but it’s very hard for US players to get contracted overseas because most of those go to the players from the Southern Hemisphere.”
Boulder, at altitude, is climatically the perfect base but because of the size of the US and the fact that the team is not entirely professional, the tendency is to camp up at wherever the matches are being played.
The new job also has him working closely with former England captain and director of rugby at Wasps and Gloucester Nigel Melville, who has been the CEO and president of US Rugby since 2006.
“Now it’s just a matter of hard work,” says O’Sullivan. “Schedules have to be done . . . and getting to know players. But it’s good to be back at work.”
