Kidney puts stress on the positives

LIKE all good managers and coaches, Declan Kidney will never criticise his players in public.

It was the same after Saturday’s disappointing performance, when he sought the positives and found ways of excusing the negatives.

Privately, though, he must have been fuming at much of what he saw from a team light years ahead of the Italians, even shading them in the scrums, where some expected them to take a pounding. The nearest he came to expressing his frustration was: “Everywhere is where we need to improve.”