Johnno on... Six Nations failures

Hi there - as England and Scotland prepare for their quarter-finals, Wales and Ireland are left to lick their wounds after suffering early exits from the World Cup.

Wales didn't waste much time in getting rid of Gareth Jenkins after Fiji put them out of the tournament. The harsh truth is that if you don't reach the quarter-finals, your coach is under real pressure. Yes he went very quickly and there was talk of player-power, but I don't know if there were things going on that we on the outside don't know about.

I haven't heard anything on the grapevine as to who the next Wales coach might be. Wales always seem to be starting again; they never seem to have two or three years of continuity.

As for Ireland, I was surprised at their level of performance. They didn't play well in what was the toughest of groups. If they'd been in the same group as England, Scotland or Wales they would probably have qualified for the quarter-finals.

Eddie O'Sullivan has got a four-year deal and the Irish RFU say they're going to back him. Ireland have had one of their most successful sides in modern times and it would be a bit harsh to get rid of O'Sullivan now.

But the World Cup has become all-important. You can have two or three years of good rugby then a bad run in the World Cup and people will be calling for your head. It happened to Clive Woodward in 1999 when we lost in the quarter-finals, but the English RFU stuck with him and four years later we won the trophy.

Comments

[ady jones]

with wales having had a number of changes in the role of coach in recent years it must call into question the ability of dai pickering and co as the men in charge of the wrfu.After the turnover rate there has been in the position of head coach of late surely there must be a deeper rooted problem within the wrfu.I can see someone has to held accountable for the lack of trophy's in the cabinet but if it is always the coach there must be a lack of experience in the men who employed him>with regard to Gareth Jenkins do you not think he should have been spared the humiliation of landing back in wales unemployed the man has pride and more important the passion for the game maybe a change at managemaent level would bring a heathier future for welsh rugby

[Rita-Marie Lawlor]

Please take the time to view my blog on www.myspace.com/rugbyworldcup2007 titled "So Far" - there's another one about periodic kiwi's but take a look to find out......

As for Eddie O'Sullivan, there's no excuse for players dropping balls and making really silly errors but I cannot understand why he didn't pick Geordan Murphy against France. Also, Ireland should have won the Six nations - or indeed the Grand Slam either last year or this year and they didn't - and probably never will as long as EOS is coach. Hmmm, the IRFU didn't see this one coming...

I just hope Roy Keane switches his interests to rugby. Although in fairness at least Eddie O'Sullivan isn't as much of a muppet as Steve Staunton - he makes me feel lucky to be an Irish rugby fan.