Irish coach Eddie O'Sullivan has not been slow to engage in some Christmas shopping. While nobody will know exactly what conversation took place between himself and Mike Ford, O'Sullivan has convinced the former scrumhalf on Britain's rugby league team to walk away from a three-year contract in England and into a six-month agreement with the IRFU.

The deal appears to indicate two things: O'Sullivan knows exactly what he wants from the former league star and Ford is confident of delivering.

Last week he was rugby league side Oldham's full-time coach, this week he joins O'Sullivan's staff, whose task is to shape Ireland into a better side than the one which finished second to England in last season's Six Nations Championship.

Ford, a specialist defensive coach, is regarded as one of the brightest and most innovative young coaches in Britain. He has earned a reputation in rugby league as one of the up-and-coming coaches in the game, and was linked to league side Warrington in July but then signed a contract with Oldham chairman Chris Hamilton which should have kept him in the 13-man game until around 2005.

A close friend of English defensive coach Phil Larder, Ford's playing credentials are likely to impress the players - he has appeared for Castleford, Leigh, Wigan, Wakefield, Warrington and the South Queensland Crushers in Australia. And at 36 years of age, he is not much older than some of the current squad.

"The thing that impressed me about Eddie O'Sullivan was that when he contacted me he was very enthusiastic," says Ford. "The whole thing didn't take very long. He was dead straight and down to earth. He told me exactly what he wanted from me.

"He wants the Irish team to be successful in defence. I said to him that I can introduce a system that I am confident with, and one that I think will be successful in the union game.

"There are without question similarities between union and league. There are subtle differences in the contact area but the principle of defence still holds. My job is straightforward. I have to bring a system to Ireland and hopefully improve the team by doing that.

"I've said to Eddie that systems take time. But I believe I'm coming in with a thousand and one ideas about ways of defending and what we have to do. This is something that I'm really looking forward to."

The marriage between the two hinges on a little risk on both sides. The IRFU looking to the north of England and a different code to help establish a stronger national side has a nice ring to it. Tradition, so often the enemy of progress, has clearly been sidelined. An Irish team with a vein of cloth-cap hardness running through it seems an attractive prospect.

"I don't bullshit," says Ford. "My principles are defence. When I look at players in Ireland, I see elite players, fantastic players and I'm sure, too, they will be intelligent footballers. I haven't met any of them but from watching matches on television I'd know a lot of them by sight."

Initially, Ford will travel from England to attend Irish squad sessions, but when the players go into camp he will remain in Ireland working with them. He will not be working with Oldham.

A rookie in the elite end of the market, he has had union experience. In 1996 Ford began working in the skills and fitness aspects of coaching with Dukinfield, a Cheshire-based rugby union side. He is still with them.

"Over the next six months I hope I can successfully do what myself and Eddie spoke about. I'm there to the end of the tour (to New Zealand). Then Ireland will review it (his contract).

"Yes, I walked away from a three-year league contract for a six-month contract. That reflects the interest I have in this job. The one thing league can't offer me is the global scene.

"I'd three interviews for top league jobs and two things kept coming up. One was age, the other was not working with elite players. It was a chicken and egg thing. When this came up, I said to myself 'these players are the best players in the world.' "

Ford joins a team which will have O'Sullivan co-ordinating with assistant coach Declan Kidney, forwards coach Niall O'Donovan and manager Brian O'Brien. He will join up with them and the team for a week-long squad-training session in Limerick from January 13th to 18th.

Ireland's opening Six Nations Championship match takes place just two weeks later when Wales arrive at Lansdowne Road on February 3rd, with the two toughest matches likely to come against France in Paris and England in Twickenham.

"Myself and Eddie had a great conversation," says Ford. "Everything then happened very fast. But the bottom line will be how many points we've conceded after six months.

"I've always had the ambition to work with international Rugby Union players. It's a challenge I'll relish."