Kidney must wait on fitness of Duffy

IRISH coach Declan Kidney will not know until next week if Connacht full-back Gavin Duffy is available for the start of the Six Nations.

The 29-year old has been out for a month with a medial knee ligament injury and has not recovered sufficiently for Connacht’s trip to Bayonne on Saturday.

The Ballina native, who has won ten caps, is being monitored for the full-back position given the injuries to Rob Kearney and Geordan Murphy. Connacht coach Eric Elwood had hoped Duffy would be fully recovered for this weekend but expects him to play the following week against Cavalieri Prato and put himself in line for an Irish recall.

“The game this week has just come a bit early for him and we don’t want to risk anything, not least given the situation with the national team. We would hope he will be fully recovered for when we play Cavalieri the following week and he will be raring to go,” said Elwood.

Elwood said that while he would not risk any player this weekend, he was going to select his strongest possible team even though Connacht can’t qualify for the knockout stages of the Amlin Challenge Cup.

“It is an opportunity for us to bring this losing run to an end. We will put our best foot forward, they will be up for it because we beat them here but this is an opportunity for us get a result.

“It has been frustrating, we have been there or thereabouts and a win in France would be worth an awful lot to us even though we can’t qualify,” added Elwood.