Former Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan is to return to rugby coaching after landing a job with struggling French giants Biarritz.
A report in today’s Irish Independent revealed that O’Sullivan was to be offered the head coaching gig with Biarritz, who have suffered an alarming fall from grace in recent years and were relegated from the Top 14 this season despite appearing in the Heineken Cup Final as recently as 2010. O’Sullivan confirmed the news on his Twitter account a little earlier this morning.
Thank you to everybody for all the good wishes. I’m really looking forward to a new and exciting challenge in Biarritz.
— Eddie O’Sullivan (@TheRealEddieOS) May 15, 2014
O’Sullivan had recently been linked with a role in the Munster set-up under Anthony Foley, but the lure of becoming a head coach, despite Biarritz’s relegation from the top flight in France, was obviously too much to resist.
O’Sullivan, who took charge of the US Eagles during the 2011 World Cup and was employed in an advisory role for the Cypriot national team last year and more recently with Garryowen, hasn’t had a permanent head coach gig for some time, having suffered a fairly high-profile rejection by Connacht before Pat Lam eventually took over from Eric Elwood.
In the meantime, he has recently fulfilled media duties for the likes of RTE and Newstalk while continuing to come out with bizarre and uniquely Eddie metaphors that are hilariously parodied on a regular basis by Mario Rosenstock and the Gift Grub crew.
O’Sullivan is the first non-Frenchman to be appointed as Biarritz head coach and he’ll have a job on his hands returning the club to past glories, but we wish him all the best.
