Kidney faith in future to face big Test

A new captain, several new faces and an unfamiliar full-back — it really is all change for Ireland as they face into a challenging Test match tomorrow evening against South Africa.

Yet this is a team thrown together by circumstance rather than design and Declan Kidney is banking on his fresh faces to wipe away the dismal dejection experienced by Ireland’s last outing.

In the wake of that awful 60-0 defeat to New Zealand in the third and final Test in Hamilton last June, Kidney is in desperate need of a boost to the nation’s rugby morale as well as a helpful kick-start to the final season of his contract as national head coach.

Injuries to talismanic figures that have served as the bedrock of his planning are a serious handicap to those aims but the Corkman has seen signs of hope on the training field these last 10 days and has picked a team he believes can more than fill in for the injured Brian O’Driscoll, Paul O’Connell, Rory Best, Sean O’Brien, Stephen Ferris and Rob Kearney during this three-match Series.

With O’Connell the latest casualty after the Munster lock and 2009 Lions captain suffered a reaction to a back injury after training on Tuesday, Kidney, already missing O’Driscoll and Best, has entrusted Jamie Heaslip to skipper Ireland for the first time, with the dynamic 28-year-old Leinster number eight taking the leadership role his coach said he had been preparing for him for more than a year.

“We talked about it a long time back, over the last few years or so, that it was something he would be keen at having a go at,” Kidney said. “I think he has shown good potential with that with Leinster also. Jamie, even though he’d deny it, he’s a consummate professional. When he turns up for work he’s really zeroed in and I think that’s a good place to start, leading players by example.

“I think he has done well by Leinster and he’s been in the group for five or six years now so he’s fully aware of what’s needed to win a Test match and I’d say that experience will help on the pitch. But then again, there were many guys holding up their hands for it but I think the time is right for Jamie now.

“It had been in my mind for a good while back but obviously we had a few front-runners in the lads who have captained the side in the last couple of years. It’s like the number of injuries you get, we’ve been working on another leadership group over the last year to make sure that when the day did come it would be more of a natural progression than a shock to anybody’s system.”

There’s a debut for Heaslip’s provincial pack-mate Richardt Strauss in an all-Leinster front row, covering for Best at hooker at the first opportunity since the South Africa-born player fulfilled his three-year residency qualification. And a rare outing for Connacht’s Mike McCarthy in a second-row partnership with Munster’s Donnacha Ryan, while Peter O’Mahony stands in for Ferris at blindside flanker and Chris Henry takes the openside slot vacated by O’Brien.

Conor Murray partners Jonny Sexton at half-back while Keith Earls has been handed his preferred 13 jersey as he fills the breach at outside centre for O’Driscoll, while wing Simon Zebo wins his second cap as cover for Kearney at full-back, an unfamiliar role that, again, Kidney has the utmost confidence he can fulfil.

“No, he hasn’t played much there,” the coach admitted. “He played some at under-age because he’s still a young man. He covers across the pitch quite well. Wingers, these days, have to be a full-back by nature with the amount of covering they have to do.

“I think he’ll bring the same attributes as he’s been showing on the wing. If I was to name those off now, I’d be trying to bracket him. He’s still a young guy and I’m not inclined to do that to a guy.”

There is further unfamiliarity in the bench with three uncapped players named among the replacements — Munster loosehead Dave Kilcoyne, Ulster back row Iain Henderson and Australian-born tight head Michael Bent, who only arrived in Ireland for the first time last Sunday and finds himself on the brink of a Test debut before he even trains with new province Leinster.

Needs must but these are the moments, the absence of so many key players, for which Kidney has been preparing.

“When you lose players of their experience it’s always something of a hurdle to overcome but I think that’s why we’ve been building a squad, because this day was always going to come. You were always hoping it would be drip fed rather than en bloc but such is the way and that’s why we’ve been calling in players over the last few years. You need to be planning for the future and we’re in that future now.”