Kidney sticks with tried and tested

WE may be at the very start of a World Cup cycle with three and a half years to shape an Ireland team to take on all comers in 2015 but the Six Nations squad unveiled by head coach Declan Kidney yesterday was very much in the ‘as you were’ mould.

Kidney has named a 24-man senior panel for next week’s pre-Championship training camp in Limerick, all of whom were members of the last Rugby World Cup squad.

There are six uncapped players who have been invited to attend the camp and there is a 24-man Wolfhounds squad which will contest an A international with England Saxons in Exeter on January 28 and all of those players have been told they have time to stake a claim for a place in Ireland’s squad for the RBS 6 Nations opener with Wales at the Aviva Stadium on February 5.

Even so, Kidney has attracted accusations of conservatism for his selection — former assistant and current Ulster coach Brian McLoughlin among those, and while his matchday 23 will no doubt bear those criticisms out, the Ireland coach has his reasons, however frustrating to those on the outside, to put experimentation on the back burner a little longer.

There is a three-Test series in New Zealand coming up this summer with the obvious incentive of defeating the All Blacks for the first time and then Ireland have the autumn internationals to try and at least maintain their IRB world ranking position of sixth ahead of this November’s pool draw for the 2015 tournament.

Those are Kidney’s priorities and new blood will have to be satisfied with, for the time being, Wolfhounds duty and extending provincial experience in the Heineken Cup.

Kidney yesterday insisted the Six Nations door is still open for the likes of Luke Fitzgerald and his fellow Wolfhounds to play their way into the squad to face the Welsh in a little more than three weeks.

Leinster flyer Fitzgerald, who has shown a blistering return to form this season after being omitted from Ireland’s World Cup squad last August, was once again overlooked for Kidney’s 24-man senior squad.

Fitzgerald, who has just recovered from a minor neck injury, was instead named in the Wolfhounds party and will feature in a game against the Saxons that Kidney is viewing as a final trial.

Of the World Cup 30-man squad not included this time around, captain Brian O’Driscoll, hooker Jerry Flannery and back row Denis Leamy are injured, as are openside flanker David Wallace and full-back Felix Jones, who were pre-tournament withdrawals in August.

Leicester full-back Geordan Murphy ruled himself out through international retirement, while scrum-half Isaac Boss, and hooker Damien Varley, Flannery’s replacement in New Zealand, join Fitzgerald in the Wolfhounds squad.

One other place may be up for grabs in the second row after Leinster captain Leo Cullen looks set to be ruled out of the entire Six Nations if the IRFU medical team agrees with his province that he requires Achilles tendon surgery.

“Leo Cullen will be assessed by the IRFU medical team next week and it is likely that he will undergo surgery later next week in Umea, Sweden,” a statement from Leinster said. “The procedure is being undertaken to alleviate an increasing stiffness in the Achilles tendons. The recovery period is approximately six to eight weeks.”

If Cullen does go under the knife, Munster’s trio of locks in the senior squad, Paul O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan and Donnacha Ryan could be joined by either Devin Toner or Dan Tuohy, who have impressed with Leinster and Ulster respectively this season and are named in the Wolfhounds squad, while both Mike McCarthy and Kevin McLaughlin would be options in the Ryan mould as offering both second row and back row cover.

And then there is Ian Nagle, who, as one of the six uncapped players invited to train with the seniors next week, alongside fellow Munstermen Peter O’Mahony and Simon Zebo, Leinster’s Andrew Conway, Connacht’s Tiernan O’Halloran and Ulster’s Paddy McAllister, will be front and centre in Kidney’s line of vision in Limerick.

Others are less fortunate, with no place at all in either squad, much to McLaughlin’s ire, are Ulster’s quick-thinking scrum-half Paul Marshall and wing Craig Gilroy, one of the try-scoring heroes of the rout of Leicester at Ravenhill on Friday. James Coughlan’s sterling work in the Munster back row continues to go unheralded, while Roger Wilson’s omission underlines his decision, also announced yesterday, to leave Northampton at the end of the season and rejoin Ulster.