2 weeks Ago By Vincent Whelan
EDDIE O'Sullivan has accused Geordan Murphy of going on a 'personality assassination' with his takedown of Steve Borthwick. Murphy made headlines earlier this week with a withering assessment of Borthwick - whom he labelled 'a tall Eddie Jones'. Among the standout lines in his chat with Prime Casino , he said: "I do know that there's a little bit of discontent in and around the coaching teams.
"And you always know that when you hear players have derogatory nicknames for coaches that’s not great. "Everything that I hear from the England squad is, ‘Oh, you know, it's a great place.’ "But again, if you're a player in the England squad, there's no point in asking anybody that question because you're not going to be stupid enough to go ‘It’s awful and we don't want to buy in.
’ "You just hear little things. I don't know how true and it's all second-hand information. "It’s just a couple of bits and pieces.
There are obviously factors, there's reasons that coaches have left. It's all part of the issue, isn't it?" The former Ireland full-back continued: "I worked with him very briefly at Leicester during the pandemic. He can coach; I think he's a good coach - that's it.
"We are certainly not friends. That's all I know. When I briefly worked with Steve that was something that he made very apparent.
He said to me, ‘I don’t want to be your friend.’ "That makes it very difficult when you're in a working environment and somebody comes to you and says that. He just cares about being a good coach.
"I only really saw him on the surface so I didn't really get to know him too well." On that headline-grabbing comparison to Borthwick's controversial predecessor , Murphy bluntly stated: "He effectively is a ‘Tall Eddie Jones.’ "That's what I'm hearing in camp, that his behaviour is very similar to Eddie.
So why would you get rid of one bloke and replace him with an English clone? "There's a lot of people who've been involved in making that decision, so I think it looks bad for a lot of people. "So, no I don't think you do get rid of him. I don't think they can get rid of him.
I think they’ll stick with him. "But that's good for everyone else!" Murphy's comments were put to O'Sullivan on the Indo Sport podcast with Joe Molloy. The 66-year-old was similarly forthright in giving his view on the whole discourse.
He pondered: "I'm just wondering what would motivate him to go on a rant like that against Borthwick? "It just doesn't make sense unless they had some sort of a falling out. "I mean why would you go on a rant like that against a coach and do a personality assassination on him? "Based on what? He says 'It's all second-hand' by the way. 'But I'm just saying it because I've heard it from somebody else.
' "It's a pretty caustic attack on the guy. I don't know Borthwick and he might not be a people person. "But I'm just wondering what would be Geordan Murphy's motivation to go off on one like that? "Against a head coach who is under a bit of pressure for sure.
To pile in on him like that...
I wouldn't applaud that carry on." The ex-Ireland boss then accepted that he and Murphy haven't exactly seen eye to eye over the years. O'Sullivan referenced: "Of course he had a huge run at me in his book as we know.
But I knew what his motivation was there. "It was because he was p***ed off he didn't get picked enough (while O'Sullivan was Ireland head coach). "Even though he did get 50 caps while I was coach.
But he was unhappy with that and it was obviously stewing with him. "So he went on that rant in his book but at least you could see where that was coming from..
.his frustration at not getting picked for Ireland enough. "And you can understand that - I might not agree with it - but you can understand it.
"I'm just at a bit of a loss as to why he would unleash on Borthwick like that because I think he spent a bit of time working with him.".
