Kidney delays revealing captain

Declan Kidney revealed the identity of the Irish captain for the November Series to his squad at Carton House yesterday but it will be tomorrow before he divulges ownership of the armband and his starting XV to the general public.

With Paul O’Connell’s back coming through two days of full training apparently unscathed, it would be something of a shock if the Munster lock was not handed the honour against South Africa on Saturday in the absence of Brian O’Driscoll.

Kidney spoke last week of how it could be too much of an encumbrance on a man still feeling his way back to fitness after another layoff but it would make sense to lean on O’Connell and make lieutenants of Jonathan Sexton and Jamie Heaslip.

Like O’Connell, Cian Healy reported no further problems concerning his shoulder problem after training yesterday while Ronan O’Gara also came through after his 80 minutes for Munster against Cardiff on Friday

Every squad member took some part in the run-out in Kildare yesterday after which Eoin Reddan rejected the theory that the success of the provinces has somehow impaired the national team’s chances of fulfilling its potential.

“The first thing to realise is that the provinces doing well is good for the national team,” said the scrum-half. “Last year everyone was going on about Wales and their provinces being rubbish and then Ospreys go and win the Rabo, literally five weeks later.

“If you get the situation where you think the provinces... doing badly might be good for Ireland, you’ll quickly have a situation where Ireland lose a few games and you have nothing.

“Now you’re looking down going ‘what have you got? (at provincial level)’ So that argument doesn’t work.

“We haven’t quite achieved what we have at the top yet but we have the foundation.

“They totally work together. Somehow, there’s kind of been... I don’t know where it’s come from... but they’ve been pitched against each other. I don’t know where that’s come from.”

Reddan’s point is backed up by the 2008/09 season when Ireland claimed a Grand Slam, Leinster won their first Heineken Cup and Munster followed up a week later with a Magners League title.

Much has changed since, not least in terms of playing personnel and no less than 13 of the 22 squad players who took part in that historic win over Wales in Cardiff three years ago are absent this week.

Some are injured, some retired while others have simply fallen from favour but if this is a team still in transition, it is one experiencing it by a process of evolution rather than revolution, according to Reddan.

“It’s probably a good transition in that it’s not that obvious. That’s probably a good way to do it. It certainly doesn’t feel like ‘God, who’s this guy?’ or anything.

“If coaches are thinking like that and it’s not that obvious, it’s probably a good thing as they’re moving along and it’s not a big deal so I’m not sure who described it as a transition.

“To me, it feels like a fairly settled squad with a few new faces. Very good players who’ve proven themselves with the provinces and will hopefully get a chance with Ireland.”