O’Shea dismisses England talk after glorious twelfth
HARLEQUINS coach Conor O’Shea emphatically dismissed suggestions he could succeed Martin Johnson as England manager after seeing his side record a 12th consecutive win.
Tries from No8 Nick Easter, full-back Mike Brown and centre Matt Hopper and the boot of Nick Evans handed Quins a 28-9 Heineken Cup Pool 6 victory at Gloucester on Saturday.
It maintained a 100 per cent start to the season that has made O’Shea one of the favourites to replace Johnson, who resigned last week following last month’s disastrous World Cup campaign.
But the Irishman said: “My job is at Quins, full stop. Players like Chris Robshaw and George Robson have committed to 2015, and I want to commit to them. We feel we are at the start of a journey, not even midway through it.
“I will get a huge amount of pleasure if we are successful and we see a lot of guys go on to represent England. I want to be at Harlequins, and I am going to be at Harlequins.”
Meanwhile, Saracens boss Mark McCall was relieved that their 15-10 defeat at Biarritz garnered a bonus point that kept them top of Heineken Cup Pool 5.
McCall said: “If we finish level it goes to the head to head between the two teams, so the bonus point could be important at the end of the pool stage.”