Kidney’s World Cup gamble

COACHES might not like it but the reality is, when they name squads, it is always the people that fail to make them that gain the lion’s share of the attention.

Declan Kidney ensured that yesterday when he chose to omit Tomás O’Leary, the go-to scrum-half of his three-year reign as Ireland coach, from the 30-man squad for next month’s World Cup.

O’Leary, blighted by a series of injuries since early October, when he broke his thumb during Munster’s Magners League clash with Leinster at the Aviva Stadium, struggled to recapture anywhere near the form that helped Ireland to the Grand Slam in 2009 during his rare periods of full fitness last season.