Kidney won’t rule out Ferris

IRELAND coach Declan Kidney is hoping against hope Stephen Ferris will battle back from a knee injury before the end of the RBS Six Nations Championship.

However, the odds aren’t so good, with Ferris facing a medical examination in two weeks that could well define his immediate future. Already, he has been ruled out for Ireland’s visit to Scotland on Sunday week.

But Kidney noted the remarkable recovery of Tommy Bowe, whose participation in the remainder of the season was under threat just three weeks ago.

Kidney said: “If you went fully with Tommy Bowe’s prognosis a few weeks ago he mightn’t have seen action in any of the Six Nations, but now he’s back up and running so that’s good and I think Steve can be the same way.”

Not that Kidney is making any promises to either player.

“Tommy is a top player, but I’m more than happy with way Keith (Earls) and Fergus (McFadden) have gone on the wings,” he said.

The Irish are still smarting from last week’s defeat to France, with Kidney admitting: “We have to put the lessons from that to good effect for Murrayfield. Does it hurt? It does. Will it always be one you would look back on and regret? Without a doubt it would, but then you always feel that way. It’s definitely one that sticks a little bit.”

Kidney reiterated that performances of those involved in Magners League games this weekend could well be taken into account in his final selection for the game with Scotland: “Yes, I don’t think any selection is inevitable. We were happy with several aspects of our performance, we got a bit of continuity going but we would have to give guys playing this weekend every respect and let them show they might bring in something that might give that little bit of a spark.”

Kidney praised the players for fronting up to the problems at Aviva Stadium and described Brian O’Driscoll’s post-match comments as an example of just how self-critical the squad members can be.

“What’s the difference between under-performing and making a few individual errors? You know, it is semantics really, isn’t it? Sometimes you need to back them (players) because you know it’s uncharacteristic, there is pressure for places but what you don’t want to have is a guy, going out on a pitch, making one error and feeling that he’s gone now because of it.”

And in relation to next week, Kidney conceded results so far in the Championship — with Scotland after two defeats — might not favour Ireland. Scotland will be dangerous as a result. “That’s likely to be the case, that and the fact they will have the confidence of winning in Croke Park last year. We can’t look back on scoring three tries against France, because Scotland got three tries over in Paris, so we know we will be up against it.”