Kidney: no need to punish Flannery

DECLAN KIDNEY believes Jerry Flannery has no case to answer after his clash with Alexis Palisson in Saturday’s Six Nations defeat at the Stade de France. And the coach remains quietly confident that his team can bounce back from what was a comprehensive 33-10 defeat at the hands of the rampant French.

Flannery appeared to lash out with his boot at Palisson in the 26th minute and was fortunate not to be shown a card. But Kidney insisted: “You never know these days but I wouldn’t have thought so. The whistle was gone, it was a 50-50 ball, two guys collided, the referee didn’t make anything of it, and the touch judge had his flag out, he thought it was a penalty.”

There will, of course, be massive speculation concerning the selection of the side to meet England before it is announced tomorrow week. When asked if he had some big decisions to make, the coach replied: “The same as I have had for the last few weeks. Let’s see what happens. We never went on (about) who was in and who was out for this game because we were happy with whoever played. Geordan (Murphy) and Luke (Fitzgerald) are out, Rob (Kearney) is sore. We’ll have to see what happens. And if you’re alluding to other positions, that’s what we build the squad for and we’ll take a good look at next week’s Magners League matches.”