Eddie O'Sullivan is not expecting New Zealand's dominance of world rugby to come to an end any time soon.
Although stalwarts like Dan Carter will never wear the All-Blacks jersey again after this Rugby World Cup, the former Ireland head coach feels they will continue to prosper as he told Off The Ball as he and ex-Ireland second-row Trevor Hogan reflected on the legacy of the tournament and final.
"They've learned from those catastrophes they've had over the years and now they've put two back-to-back. They now have this capacity to replicate what they've been doing for the last four years and that to me is bad news for everybody else," he said.
Trevor added that rivals can use New Zealand as a benchmark of what to reach for in terms of their own developments. But he also touched on a related issue in the Irish case.
New Zealand’s Kieran Read and Richie McCaw with the Webb Ellis Trophy ©INPHO/Billy Stickland
"Ewan MacKenna did a really good piece on the gap between the private schools and the clubs. It's really prevalent and fair play, he put his finger on it. If we want to become like New Zealand, if we want rugby balls everywhere - I'm teaching in a rugby school but at lunchtime, it's soccer they play - and you have to try and challenge that and break that down. I don't know how you'd do it but rugby isn't necessarily an easy game to throw around a ball at lunchtime. Soccer is easier but it's up to the IRFU to break [it] down. The rugby schools shouldn't have the stranglehold they do on it. It should be played in the Christian Brothers schools to the same level. You should have the same resources. It's the bigger picture we need to be considering if we want to become like New Zealand or anywhere close to them. It has to be played widely and freely."
Eddie added that "Australia is the team to model ourselves on because they have the same issues and same problems" in terms of multiple sports played at grassroots level".
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