Kidney ‘privileged’ to land Leinster job

IT was supposed to be his first official day in office but the evidence surrounding new Leinster coach Declan Kidney yesterday suggested that the Corkman had been beavering away long beforehand.

The former Munster and Irish assistant coach was not only flanked in the Old Belvedere clubhouse by Bobby Byrne, his assistant coach confirmed four weeks back, but by a couple of new if familiar faces.

Gerry Murphy, Ireland’s coach at the 1995 World Cup, on his right-hand side, was confirmed as a second assistant to Kidney, while former Irish international centre Paul McNaughton was confirmed as the province’s new manager. That’s of course not forgetting scrum-coach Roly Meates, who was part-and-parcel of the previous two regimes at the province.