Kidney ‘lets fly’ over ill-discipline

DONNCHA O’CALLAGHAN has revealed the Ireland team have been on the receiving end of furious dressing downs over their on-field discipline from head coach Declan Kidney.

The Munster, Ireland and Lions lock, retained in an unchanged team from the one which hung on for victory against Scotland 10 days ago for Saturday’s Six Nations trip to Wales, said the normally calm and composed Kidney had lashed into the squad during a team meeting last week during a mini-camp at the Carton House Hotel in Kildare.

The source of Kidney’s ire had been the high penalty count at Murrayfield which allowed the Scots to fight back from 21-9 down to 21-18, 15 of the points coming from penalties conceded at the breakdown.

“It’s disappointing,” O’Callaghan said yesterday of the penalties. “The silly ones will always annoy you and I think anyone who was in our meeting with Deccie in Carton House wouldn’t want to be on the end of a silly penalty this week. You probably know him all as a nice man, calm and composed, but he let fly on Tuesday and you just don’t want to be in there, following the review of that game, being on the end of something silly.”

Of the rare loss of temper from Kidney, O’Callaghan said it made the message all the more effective.

“I can remember one or two with Munster but he was fairly annoyed, to be fair,” O’Callaghan said of his former provincial boss.

“And you can say that you can self-police and stuff like that but when it comes down from the top, you have to perk up and listen to it. You can say you should self-police within the team and Paul and Drico were saying it, but none of it would carry the weight that when it came from Deccie there on Tuesday.

“You could see it’s the main man calling the shots and guys don’t want to re-offend.

“It’s tough for him to be that blunt and direct. It’s a kind of side to him that you don’t like to see too much.”