Early Career
O'Sullivan played for the Garryowen Football Club during the 1970s and 1980s, while teaching physical education, maths, and science in Mountbellew, County Galway. He also played Gaelic Football. In 1982, he played corner forward on the Mountbellew Moylough Gaelic football team that lost the Galway Senior Football Final.
He started his coaching career at a Galway club Monivea RFC before being appointed as a rugby development officer with the IRFU. He followed this with spells coaching at Blackrock College, (first as assistant, then as head coach) Connacht and the Irish Under-21 side. The Under-21 side won the 1996 Triple Crown, beating Clive Woodward's England.
After failing to secure a high profile coaching position in Ireland, O'Sullivan moved to America to coach the US Eagles. He was then appointed as the assistant coach of the Irish national side in 1999, and in 2001 as the head coach following the departure of Warren Gatland.
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