O'Sullivan contacted over USA position

RUGBY NEWS ROUND-UP:USA RUGBY has officially contacted the agent of former Ireland coach, Eddie O'Sullivan, with a view to sounding out his availability to succeed Scott Johnson as coach.

The Australian has officially resigned as the USA Eagles coach to take over as head coach at the Ospreys, thereby leaving a vacancy which O’Sullivan would be the obvious favourite to fill were he inclined to do so.

O’Sullivan, who has been seeking a new challenge since resigning as Irish coach last March in the wake of Ireland’s 33-10 defeat to England at Twickenham after a near seven-year tenure, has been on two coaching tours to the US since last August.

He remains well thought of, and well connected there, since a two-year stint as the Eagles assistant coach, up to and including the 1999 World Cup.

His name has been linked with almost every job that has become vacant in the last 10 months, from Biarritz to Leicester, but all in all, the USA Eagles now looks a more realistic and, indeed, very likely destination.

His former Irish charges yesterday trained without hiccup or injury enforced absentees; their late change of plans to remain in Limerick for the first half of this week now seeming highly fortunate given the blizzards which have hit the east coast.

The 27-man squad will train again this morning before Declan Kidney announces his team at lunchtime today to play France in the Six Nations opener at Croke Park this Saturday, along with the A team and replacements to face the English Saxons at Donnybrook on Friday.

However, winger Ian Dowling and hooker Bernard Jackman have both been ruled out of the Ireland A squad due to injury. Dowling suffered a hamstring tear and Jackman has aggravated an ankle injury.

Ulster winger Mark McCrea has been called into the squad to replace Dowling along with Jackman’s Leinster colleague John Fogarty. Munster centre Barry Murphy has also been added to the squad.

Meanwhile, all three of France’s injury worries have cleared up in advance of Saturday’s clash. Toulouse prop Benoit Lecouls, captain and lock Lionel Nallet and Sebastien Chabal had all sustained minor injuries while on club duty at the weekend, but all three reported to Marcoussis yesterday evening for the start of a week’s preparation.

Lecouls appeared to be coach Marc Lievremont’s biggest concern, having received a neck injury during his side’s defeat to Biarritz on Saturday, but he said: “I feel hardly anything now. Everything should be okay.”

Nallet looks to have recovered from a rib complaint, while Chabal has shrugged off a shoulder problem and so Lievremont will also have a clean bill of health when unveiling his starting XV this morning.