Kidney has no wriggle room in Irish scrum

Those who believe Declan Kidney will be quickly able to find alternatives and back-up support for Cian Healy, Mike Ross and Tom Court, the trio who have carried the scrummaging responsibilities throughout the RBS 6 Nations Championship, will have to think again.

The 19 Irish-qualified props contracted to each of the four provinces are: Connacht — Dennis Buckley, Ronan Loughney, Stewart Maguire, Dylan Rogers, Jamie Stevens, Brett Wilkinson; Leinster — Jamie Hagan, Jack McGrath, Jack O’Connell; Munster — Stephen Archer, Marcus Horan, John Ryan, Darragh Hurley; Ulster — Callum Black, Conor Carey, Jerry Cronin, Declan Fitzpatrick, Adam Macklin, Paddy McAllister.

Even the most optimistic fan would take a lot of convincing that any of the above can solve our scrummaging problems in the short term. The grim fact is that a tiny percentage will be ready to step up to the plate when Ireland travel to New Zealand for a three-match series next June, an exercise that could heap more embarrassment should our set-piece difficulties continue.