Unchanged team reflects Kidney’s thinking

THIS time there were no really hard calls, allowing Declan Kidney to announce an unchanged Ireland team to take on Wales at Croke Park next Saturday.

He looked at full-back and out-half but found no reason to omit Geordan Murphy and Jonathan Sexton who performed so solidly in the win over England.

There is the consolation for Rob Kearney to be included in the squad, having been sidelined by a knee injury at Twickenham. However, for Ronan O’Gara, there is the frustration of warming the bench on the day his great friend and long-time teammate Brian O’Driscoll, is picking up his 100th cap.

There is every chance, of course, Kearney and O’Gara will see some game time, with the coach again likely to use his bench as he sticks to a strategy that worked so well against England.

“After being out injured all season, Geordan answered the call last week,” said Kidney. “I thought he was unlucky not to get the nod in game four last year and I went on record then to say so. He went well enough against England to warrant giving him a second run. Rob has worked really hard to get back and it’s not that he has done anything wrong but I just went with Geordan for this one.

“I suppose everyone is going to talk about out-half. I wouldn’t call it a welcome difficulty but as I have said before, we are blessed to have two great out-halves. There are other players unlucky to lose out... Andrew Trimble (dropped off the bench for Kearney), has done very well any time he’s been in, Paddy Wallace has been exceptional within the squad and I couldn’t speak highly enough of him.”

Having reached the century mark at Twickenham, John Hayes moves on to his 101st appearance in the green jersey although an Irish official wouldn’t confirm or deny he has been offered a renewal of his contract up to the end of the 2011 World Cup.

Donncha O’Callaghan wins his 60th cap on Saturday.

Kidney added that Marcus Horan is making a claim for recognition and Tom Court is also very much on his mind. So the coach is clearly happy at the way his ambition of building the strongest possible squad is gaining momentum. There are those who believe Wales will be considerably weaker for the absence of the Jones boys, Alun and Ryan, but the Irish coach wouldn’t necessarily agree.

“Having changes has worked to our advantage before because it means you’re harder to analyse,” he argued. “Each player will bring his own chemistry to it and the lineout will be a little bit different, their ball play around the park will be a little bit different because sometimes players get used to one another’s nuances. I don’t think it will make much difference to the overall game.”

On the other hand, Ireland are unchanged for the first time this season and that can’t be a bad thing, either.

Said Kidney: “There isn’t any exact science in trying to learn things about yourself as a team. There are a lot of guys I’d like to be bringing in but you also have to balance that with a little bit of cohesiveness. If you look at the possession stakes against England, we didn’t have a whole lot of ball. Also, Wales can sometimes be more dangerous when we’re in possession because if you break down, their counter is especially good.”

Kidney clearly hasn’t forgotten the lessons handed out by the French in Paris last month and is fearful that the many mistakes that spoilt that performance might be repeated by the red hot Welsh back division.

“If we make the same little errors and our defensive line isn’t right, they will exploit that,” he maintained.

“They’ve scored more than we did in their three matches and so we’ll have to tighten up our defence and be just as good in attack. What I do admire about them is that they play for the full 80 minutes, they did so in last year’s game and when they were here two years earlier, they managed to put one over on us in Croke Park.

“I’ve read that it doesn’t hold any fears for them and we have to face all those challenges.”