Kidney gives Drico every chance to face Aussies

SKIPPER Brian O’Driscoll faces a battle to regain fitness in time for the opening Test of the Autumn Series against South Africa on Saturday week as injury and Magners League commitments reduced Ireland’s options at their training camp in Limerick this week.

O’Driscoll’s hamstring injury is responding to treatment, and coach Declan Kidney is giving his talisman every chance of lining out against the world champions.

And though Munster, Leinster, Ulster and Connacht have received co-operation from the national camp for their fixtures this weekend, it makes Kidney’s job more difficult. At a press conference yesterday, team manager Paul McNaughton revealed Ireland’s main squad would be reduced to between 22 and 24 players for the remainder of the week.

Accordingly, as players make their way back to the provinces, Kidney has called in six unnamed academy/development players to allow him work with a squad of 30 for the last day.

The unavailability of O’Driscoll was compounded by injury to another number 13 – Keith Earls. Kidney had hoped to release Earls back to Munster to give him further game time following his recent ankle injury; instead the talented youngster has been advised to rest for the week after medics assessed the problem. On top of that, Gordon D’Arcy won’t start training until tomorrow.

Another injured player — hooker Rory Best — has been cleared to train on Friday. Kidney did admit it was far from the perfect situation. “You would hope that they will respond (to treatment) but it’s always a worry when guys aren’t training; also the time to prepare is so short so it’s not ideal that they haven’t been able to do anything in training so far this week.

“This is a different type of season really,” said Kidney, as he outlined the additional commitments on both provinces and country. “We have four extra Magners League fixtures, an extra Autumn international, so for first time ever we’ll have league games and an international clashing.

“Seven extra weekends are needed through those games and two extra play-offs in the Magners League. That means there will be duplication in terms of preparation; it’s very important to work with one another.

“When you do the sums, on a weekend when you have an international and Magners League games, that means having 114 players involved, and at any stage there is an injury rate so that most professional players are going to be occupied on such weekends.

Injuries, said Kidney, were a fact of life in the game. “The fixtures are there, you want everyone to play games, don’t want to roll guys up in cotton wool, so you can look at the part of the glass that’s empty or full.

But Kidney has firmly decided to keep Jonathan Sexton in camp rather than release him back despite a less than ideal amount of preparation. Kidney’s reasoning is that a player in such a key position needs to put in a huge amount of work with the squad in the build-up to Saturday week.

“Jonathan needs to know what’s going on, all out halves do; in terms of game time, he has had three and a half and if that doesn’t make him ready for this series then he wouldn’t be ready for World Cup (next year) because he will have had less of a build-up.

Meanwhile, the Irish pack has managed to do some productive work on the scrum with the help of New Zealand specialist coach Greg Feek.

Currently working with Leinster, he has been brought onto the Irish coaching ticket for November.