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Declan Kidney has revealed he began the process to increase the depth of the leadership group within the Irish rugby squad a year ago in anticipation of what has happened this week, with Brian O’Driscoll and Rory Best both being ruled out of the November internationals through injury.

The age profile of O’Driscoll, Best, Paul O’Connell and Ronan O’Gara prompted the head coach to freshen up that aspect of the squad but with a strong possibility that none of the quartet will be on the field against South Africa tomorrow week, it will be interesting to see who stands up. Barring injury, Gordon D’Arcy islikely to be the most experienced member of the team that takes on the Springboks and as he sat next to Kidney at yesterday’s press briefing in Carton House, one wondered if he was likely to succeed his long-time centre partner O’Driscoll as skipper if O’Connell doesn’t recover from a back injury. Whatever happens in the short term, the likes of Jamie Heaslip, Cian Healy, Keith Earls and Jonathan Sexton are being groomed.

“We’ve been doing that since six, 12 months ago” said Kidney. “That was always going to come around so it would have been wrong to wait until it had to happen. “There’s a crop ofplayers there… it wouldn’t take arocket scientist to work it out, they’ve been around a bit. There’s about a half-dozen, eight fellas we’re working on and bringing through.”

Kidney said that he had a candidate in mind for the armband and listed some of the requirements for the job.

“What you want is a player that the other players will respect, on and off the pitch. A player that they will listen to, that has a good tactical appreciation of what’s needed out on the pitch. Usually the captain has to have a relationship with the referee.

“I rarely go up to a guy and say ‘will you just captain the side?’ because it is another load on him and first andforemost you want to make sure he’s comfortable with it. We’ve a few lads that could step in. The way test rugby is, it might be a cliché, but you do need them all to be leaders.”

Kidney reported O’Connell to have pulled up stiff on Tuesday from training the previous day.

The Munster talisman had hoped to line out for the province alongside O’Gara in tonight’s Rabobank PRO 12 trip to Cardiff but won’t now, despite responding well to treatment. Kidney is optimistic O’Connell and Healy — who had a shoulder scan yesterday — will be available for selection.