Kidney: making excuses wouldn’t be our way

DECLAN KIDNEY was making no excuses after defeat by Leinster, which ended any aspirations Munster harboured of a Magners League/Heineken Cup double, but the evening could prove a costly one for Kidney in terms of personnel after Ronan O’Gara and Peter Stringer retired injured during a fractious, tetchy but hugely exciting interprovincial.

Magnanimous in defeat, Kidney accepted the better team won, but praised his side’s efforts in their own challenge for league honours. He wouldn’t accept either that last weekend’s heroics in Kingsholm impacted upon their below-par performance.

“I think that would be disingenuous to Leinster,” he said. “We were looking forward to the game. I think Leinster played very well. You give credit to them where it’s due — they’ve shown a lot of consistency throughout this league. You can come up with excuses, but that wouldn’t be our way.”