Now it’s Kidney’s turn in Aviva hotseat

It’s unlikely that it crossed Declan Kidney’s mind as he announced his latest squad at the Aviva Stadium yesterday but he did so whilst sat in the very same seat from which Giovanni Trapattoni felt the wrath of the Irish media 12 days earlier.

The Italian had just presided over that disastrous 6-1 loss to Germany, which has left his stewardship on shaky soil since, and that is a landscape with which his rugby counterpart is familiar after that 60-0 humiliation in New Zealand last June.

There were no tetchy exchanges in the Aviva Stadium media auditorium this time, no back-and-forth arguments and justifications or pidgin English, but no one is under any illusions as to the stakes involved next month. For the man and his team.