Kidney keen to quell Slam ‘hype’

WELL, we can talk about it now; even in the carefully-considered company of Declan Kidney, the possibility of an Irish Grand Slam for the first time since 1948 is an acceptable topic for discussion.

But, even as every media organ and outlet in these islands begins to ratchet up the hype in the build-up to the Millennium Stadium on Saturday for the season-ending decider against Wales, just don’t expect the first-year Irish manager to start getting overly excited about the whole affair.

“It’s new territory for everybody, everybody has to do their job and I would respect that,” he says. “Realistic expectation is grand, it’s when people write stuff for the sake of writing it, that doesn’t do anybody any favours. I know the Irish press won’t be doing that next week.”