Kidney plays it cool

GAMBLING has never come easily to Declan Kidney but there’s a view in the French capital that he’s taking something of a chance with Stephen Ferris by including the Ulster man at number six for today’s crunch RBS Six Nations clash with France.

Ferris has been out of action for the past three weeks with an injury which didn’t look like responding to treatment when the original side was announced on Tuesday. But seemingly a small miracle has been worked in the meantime and it was confirmed last night by Kidney that he will definitely line out today (4.30pm Irish time).

“It is not usual to be talking about younger players being more experienced than older guys, but Stephen’s big-match experience built up over the last 12 months (is something) he can bring with him tomorrow,” claimed the coach.

The Ulster Lion took no part in yesterday’s Captain’s Run and so it was put to Kidney that he was treating Ferris with kid gloves. Kidney chuckled quietly: “We wouldn’t do that, it’s just prudent that when he comes back in, you want him to enjoy his games and it’s always getting the balance between doing the right amount of training and too much. He had worked hard on his rehab and for what he was going to get out of today, it was better that he rested up for tomorrow.”

Yes, Declan, but are you actually taking a gamble with fitness? It seemed the coach had enough of this line of questioning but, once again, he responded courteously: “No, no, he’s grand, he’s fine. The reason I’m loath to say he’s 100% is because I don’t know if any of us are 100%.

“He’s charging away at training, he wanted to train, but we just held him back. No, he’s good.”

It’s hardly surprising Kidney is anxious to have Ferris in his back row given the enormity of the challenge presented by the French trio of Ouedraogo, Dusautoir and majestic number eight Imanol Harinodoquy.

Kidney points to the quality of his own back row: “They have played together a little bit. It’s always a combination effect and their understanding of one another’s play is a handy thing to have. We have found that they complement each other the way they go about their business.

“Stephen can perform the attributes of a back row the same way as the other lads, he can carry, he makes his tackles, he can feed into the line-out and that’s no different to Wally or Jamie. It’s that combination with the other two and their time together that has stood to his favour.”

Brian O’Driscoll enjoyed his return yesterday to the scene of his three-try spectacular against Les Bleus here in 2000.

“You realise what a great place it is, how it’s a fast track and how it’s the way you want to play rugby,” he enthused. “It adds that little bit of excitement that you need because you realise you have to bring your A game to Paris if you want to survive. The pitch will play the way a lot of us would like it.

“The three tries in 2000 changed my life a good bit. I suppose I didn’t realise how big a deal it was until I got home. It was a big change for Irish rugby — a lot of new guys had come in and the team, the focus, the mentality, the focus changed hopefully forever. It was far from one game.

“The one before that one was against Scotland, five guys got capped and these guys are John Hayes, who’s on his 99th cap tomorrow, and Rog his 95th, Shane Horgan, Strings, Simon Easterby, guys who have been hugely instrumental in any success Ireland have had over the last 10 years.

“It changed the mentality of us as a rugby team and rugby nation. That game was the catalyst for how the game here has changed.”

TODAY’S centre battle between O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy and the giant French pair Yannick Jauzion and Mathieu Bastareaud remains a massive talking point. Many believe France will hold a decisive edge there but O’Driscoll rubbished the notion.

“I’ll have done the same analysis and respect to those two as I did to Garcia and Canale last week, so nothing changes in that respect,” he maintained.

“You have to remain professional no matter what opposition you play against.

“The days of being frightened are well and truly behind me. You are always wary of who you play against and understand they have a certain skill set, but you also realise you have your own skill set they have to worry about.”