Downey driving on

LEINSTER fans have had enough reasons to curse Declan Kidney over the years, and if James Downey gets the better of Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy in today’s Heineken Cup final they would be justified in hurling insults at the Ireland boss once again.

Almost exactly five years ago, the Northampton Saints centre was unemployed, having been released by Connacht. Aged 25, Downey was debating whether to give up the game and return to university, only to make a phone call to his former youth coach Kidney, then at Munster.

Kidney accepted Downey’s offer to train for free, and inadvertently re-ignited the 30-year-old’s passion for the game, and a career which has taken a circuitous route to the Millennium Stadium this afternoon.