O’Sullivan Dismisses Talk of Grand Slam

Grand Slam Champions before we’ve played the Grand Slam Champions ? That’s the talk that’s being talked even before Ireland have played the best, and it’s talk that the Ireland coach dismisses

Grand Slam Champions before we’ve played the Grand Slam Champions ?

That’s the talk that’s being talked even before Ireland have played the best and it’s talk that Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan dismisses.

“Look, before the championship started the French were being spoken of as Grand Slam champions. The English were being spoken of as Grand Slam champions. Now people are talking about us as Grand Slam champions and we haven’t played either of them yet so I think it’s a little ludicrous really.”

” We have to take each game as it comes, if we look beyond that then we’ll slip up. On Saturday we’re playing a French side who hammered Scotland and when they played England they outscored them on the try count and if their kicker hadn’t left his kicking boots in the locker, it might have been different. And that was in Twickenham, so no, I see no reason to talk about Grand slam at this stage.

And it was a theme, captain Brian O’Driscoll addressed also , “People have gotten a little ahead of themselves, and I suppose it’s understandable but they should remember that they’ve (France) just scored 38 points against Scotland, seven tries in their last two matches, three against the English in Twickenham so whatever anyone else believes, we are under no illusions about the sort of task we face on Saturday.”

” France are a good side, they’re always a good side. And they always have the potential to be a fantastic side. Last year they gave us a drubbing and that’s still fresh in the memory if we need any reminding of what they are capable of. And the scary thing is that on that occasion it could have been much worse. As I recall, we brought off some last ditch tackles. Even without Galthie they’re going to be a huge challenge.

O’Sullivan is looking forward to being back at Lansdowne Road,
Yes, we’ve had two on the road so it’ll be good to get back to play in front of our own crowd. It’s always a huge help having the crowd with you. We’ll concentrate on what we have to do and on doing it properly, and I think if we can play the sort of game we’d like to play then we’ll be ok.