Tuesday, November 17, 2009
DECLAN KIDNEY is the type of rugby man who would have taken almost as much satisfaction from Ireland’s victory in the Churchill Cup in the USA as he did from the Grand Slam heroics in the Six Nations Championships.
Whether or not he will give many of the squad who excelled themselves across the Atlantic a chance against Fiji at the RDS on Saturday is another issue though. Many would regard this game as the ideal opportunity to do so and it will be fascinating to see his selection at lunchtime today.
The likelihood is Kidney will mix and match here, keeping faith with some of his more experienced players to try and ensure victory while giving a chance to those on the fringes.
He will probably stick with the Cian Healy/Jerry Flannery/John Hayes front-row for obvious reasons. Healy needs all the experience he can get at international level while Flannery and Hayes need more game time ahead of the South African challenge.
The second-row, however, provides him with a few options. Paul O’Connell and Donncha O’Callaghan might fancy a breather before tackling the world champions on Saturday week. There are alternatives available to Kidney, most notably Leinster captain Leo Cullen and Bob Casey, the London Irish skipper.
With Shane Jennings out of the running due to suspension and few others putting up their hands, David Wallace may continue at number seven. Denis Leamy will come into the reckoning in the back row while Ulster’s in-form Chris Henry and Northampton’s Neil Best are also in contention.
Having performed so solidly against Australia on Sunday, it may sound harsh to break up the Ronan O’Gara-Tomas O’Leary partnership but Jonathan Sexton and Eoin Reddan have been in outstanding form for Leinster and I fail to see what good it would do to leave them warming the bench on this occasion.
There has been criticism of Kidney’s failure to use his replacements on Sunday, bringing on Keith Earls for Luke Fitzgerald only because of injury, and only calling up Leamy for Stephen Ferris for the last few plays.
While some believe this to be a wasted opportunity to bring in fresh legs, it is not difficult to understand Kidney’s rationale. He was hardly going to gamble with a relative novice in Sean Cronin once Flannery proved his fitness nor did Cian Healy do anything to merit being replaced by the unproven Tom Court.
O’Connell and O’Callaghan were close to their best and so that left no room for the introduction of Leo Cullen in the second row. Likewise, Sexton and Reddan were precluded from the action simply because O’Gara and O’Leary were working so well and the situation was much the same for Earls up to the time of Fitzgerald’s departure.
That was caused by a knock to the knee, which subsequently looks to have sidelined Fitzgerald for the whole of Ireland’s Six Nations campaign, a major blow for Kidney.
There are options open to the coach in the three-quarter line with Ulster’s Darren Cave, scorer of two tries for the As in the fine win over Tonga, in the running for a place in the centre alongside his clubmate Paddy Wallace.
Such a move would give Brian O’Driscoll a break before the match against South Africa while there are also grounds for giving game time on the wing to Shane Horgan and Earls. Earls could also be entrusted with the full back jersey given the heavy knock Rob Kearney sustained on Sunday which probably impaired his effectiveness subsequently.
Which brings us back to that Churchill Cup triumph and whether any of those heroes will be asked to step up to the plate on Saturday... to refresh memories, this is the side that beat the England Saxons 49-22 in the final last June: Felix Jones; Denis Hurley, Fergus McFadden, Keith Matthews, Johne Murphy; Jonathan Sexton, Isaac Boss; Cian Healy, Sean Cronin, Tony Buckley, Donnacha Ryan, Devin Toner, Neil Best capt, Niall Ronan, Chris Henry.
The replacements were Denis Fogarty, Bryan Young, Trevor Hogan, John Muldoon, Simon Keogh, Niall O’Connor, James Downey.
Well, clearly at least some of these players have not been forgotten. Healy was one of the successes of Sunday’s team against Australia while Sexton and Cronin were on the bench. Several others, including the Churchill Cup final’s ‘most valuable player’ Fergus McFadden, were included in Kidney’s squad for the November internationals while a number were involved in last week’s A match and doubtless will again line out against the junior Pumas on Friday week.
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