Kidney must learn quickly or World will fall apart

MASSIVE amounts of money has been spent on the Irish squad, not least over the past few weeks as they luxuriated in the delightful surroundings of Carton House in leafy County Kildare.

The return? Four disconcerting defeats, a mere two tries and a sense of foreboding as they set out today on their World Cup campaign in New Zealand.

Before the start of the warm-up series, phrases like ‘the need for momentum’ and ‘morale-boosting performances’ were tossed around at will in the expectation of, at least, two wins and a satisfactory level of performance.