Kidney determined to simply ‘get on with the job’

Declan Kidney last night vowed to get on with his job as Ireland head coach and ignore the speculation about his future in the role that has increased with RBS 6 Nations defeat to Scotland.

Kidney, who led Ireland to the Grand Slam in 2009 in his first Six Nations campaign but is out of contract with the IRFU this summer, suffered the first back-to-back championship defeat of his tenure at Murrayfield yesterday as his side dominated the game but went down 12-8 to a distinctly ordinary Scotland team.

That will pile the pressure on Munster’s two-time Heineken Cup-winning coach, who succeeded Eddie O’Sullivan in 2008.

“Well you know that’s not something that’s in any way in my control so I’ll just get on with the job,” Kidney said. “I just feel the same way as the rest of the players and management. There is frustration given we created that much that we didn’t manage to win the game and that’s what it will be.

“And then it will be a case of analysing it, picking out bits that I can show the players, show them how to learn and create even more the next time if possible, and look to win the next match if possible.”

Ireland’s next match will be against France at the Aviva Stadium on March 9 and Kidney was not holding out any misplaced hopes that he will have first-choice fly-half Jonny Sexton fit again after a grade two hamstring tear suffered in the defeat to England on February 10.

“Jonny gave it a good bit of a tear so it will be at the end of next week before we have any...we’ll stay hopeful until the end of next week and then we’ll see how he goes after that.

“There will be a lot happening then too, there’s an appeal in [against Cian Healy’s three-week suspension], Mike McCarthy (knee) was managing to run straight lines a bit but then we have another few today as well too.

“Look, there’s no point in sitting around complaining, we’ll just get on with it.”

Yet Kidney admitted he was deeply disappointed to have lost a game his players had dominated throughout, enjoying 71% possession and 77% territory over the mediocre Scots.

“It’s just frustrating,” the Ireland head coach said. “When you create the amount we created and weren’t able to finish it off, it’s just frustrating for everybody involved.”

While Kidney was frustrated, his opposite number, interim Scotland coach Scott Johnson, could not believe how lucky his team had been to have been trailing just 3-0 at the interval.

“We have got to be honest and say that it wasn’t perfect from us,” the Australian said. “At half time I felt like we must have watched Ali and Foreman or something. We were lulling them into some false sense of security.

“My neck was getting sore looking down to one end of the pitch. It’s a funny game. I’ve played in games when I’ve been on the other side. It puts a bit of pressure on the team that should be in front. We went in at 3-0 down and I would have taken that. So we took it and we took our chances. We will enjoy the next 24 hours but we will also acknowledge that we have got to work on a few things.”