Kidney likely to go with tried and tested again

AFTER Ronan O’Gara’s man-of-the-match performance against Scotland, Declan Kidney is left scratching his head as to how best deal with his two outstanding out-half candidates for Saturday’s clash with Wales in Cardiff.

O’Gara was acclaimed for his performance chiefly due to the brilliant manner in which he helped his side dominate territorially. Once again he demonstrated he has few peers when it comes to playing the corners.

However, just as O’Gara has proven for 11 years that he can deliver in most other facets, his challenger, Jonny Sexton is rapidly developing into a number 10 of international quality.

Though he kicked six out of six for Leinster in their defeat of the Scarlets on Friday, the most impressive aspect of Sexton’s game was the manner in which he pegged back the Welsh with a splendid display of tactical kicking.

And if he has the edge over O’Gara in one area, it may be that physically he is better equipped to deal with the considerable defensive demands now imposed on rugby’s number 10.

Wales have discovered two useful wing-forwards in Danny Lydiate and Sam Warburton and they, along with number 8 Ryan Jones will make life interesting for whoever fills the number 10 jersey. I believe that man will be O’Gara, at least for the first hour or so, but given that England have man mountain back-row men in Nick Easter and James Haskell, it may well be a different call when the ‘auld enemy’ come to the Aviva a week later.

Though Ireland only scraped home against a poor Scottish side, the chances are that Kidney will make few changes. It’s difficult to see where he could improve things by introducing the likes of Andrew Trimble, Fergus McFadden, Peter Stringer (or Tomás O’Leary should he prove his fitness), Tony Buckley, Sean Cronin, Leo Cullen, Denis Leamy or Shane Jennings. It is good the coach has such options but I doubt Kidney will be too tempted to utilise them.

South Africa’s Jonathan Kaplan will be in charge Saturday and hopefully he will referee both sides equally, something many suspect has not been the case where Ireland are concerned this season.

The Magners League is set for a break with Munster nine points clear at the top and odds-on for a lucrative home semi-final. They are not assured of finishing in pole position with five matches to be played with tricky assignments in successive weeks against the Scarlets and the Ospreys. They could drop points on those trips and also when Leinster travel to Thomond Park on April 2nd chasing their sixth successive win over their rivals.

The big guns on both sides will be back for that tie a week before Leinster meet Leicester Tigers in the Heineken Cup quarter-final and Munster travel to Brive for an Amlin Challenge Cup clash.

Third placed Leinster are 12 points behind Tony McGahan’s side and not assured of a place in the knock-out stages. As they will badly need a result at Thomond Park and with Munster desperate to avoid yet another defeat at the hands of the Leinster men, it is already a mouthwatering proposition.

Leinster’s youngsters performed impressively in defeating the Scarlets on Friday night. Coach Joe Schmidt stayed loyal to his up and coming players and has some hugely promising material coming through. His Munster counterpart Tony McGahan was content to give many of his lesser known players a start against the Dragons the following evening but when the fourth bonus point try was slow in coming, he drafted in old reliables like Peter Stringer, Tony Buckley and Alan Quinlan in place of Conor Murray, Stephen Archer and Ian Nagle. Simon Zebo, who showed many exciting touches on the left wing, was also called ashore with almost 20 minutes remaining.

McGahan may argue the strategy paid off in that two late tries by Johne Murphy and Quinlan earned the bonus but it would have been interesting to see how it played out had the youngsters remained to the finish.