Kidney calls for Croke Park celebration

Declan Kidney insists it would be “huge” to mark the end of Ireland’s residency at Croke Park by claiming the Triple Crown.

The champions need only defeat Scotland in Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations finale in Dublin to complete their fifth clean sweep of the home unions in seven seasons dating back to 2004.

Adding emotion to the occasion will be the team’s farewell to the cathedral of Gaelic sport, where they have spent four successful years.

Triple Crowns may have lost some of their lustre during Ireland’s glory years but Kidney insists winning another would be a fitting send-off to Croke Park.

“To me the Triple Crown is huge because in the past I’ve seen teams that have failed to fulfil themselves,” said the head coach.

“Coming into the job, people were saying this team is getting old. I thought that if we could be involved in winning anything it would be brilliant.

“To me it’s huge, it’s something that you dream about being involved in, especially on home soil and as part of a special occasion.

“It’s a romantic ending that couldn’t be orchestrated – our last match at Croke Park with a Triple Crown to be won.”

Kidney rounded on those who dismiss the Triple Crown as an irrelevance in a decade when it has become synonymous with Ireland.

“A genuine sports supporter would never become blase about winning a Triple Crown,” he said.

“Once we start taking things for granted and being blase....just look what happened to the economy.

“The economy took a hit when we were maybe taking things for granted there. We took it for granted, then it was gone.

“The situation of winning a Triple Crown may also be gone in the future.

“We have a good bunch of players and it would be a terrible shame if we let this opportunity slip though our fingers. Chances like this are rare enough.”

A symbolic rout of England amid the setting of ’Bloody Sunday’, victory over world champions South Africa and a Grand Slam-winning season are among Ireland’s highlights at Croke Park.

They will relocate to a revamped Lansdowne Road – now rebranded as the Aviva Stadium – in the autumn, but Kidney insists it will be a wrench to leave GAA headquarters.

“It means a huge amount to the players to have been able to play at Croke Park,” he said.

“Most of our lads coming up through the age groups would have tried most of the codes – hurling, football, soccer.

“Everyone will have taken a good look at finals days when they were growing up. Now we’re playing there in front of a full house.

“It’s an exceptional stadium, as good as anything around the world.

“For an amateur organisation to build a stadium like that was a magnificent achievement.

“To have the use of their facilities over the last four years has been a genuine privilege.

“A lot of the lads are looking forward to Saturday because internationals are not going to held there again.

“The biggest thing was the GAA’s generosity and the fact they were willing to share it.”

Kidney has named an unchanged 22 for Scotland’s visit to Dublin, though inside centre Gordon D’Arcy will undergo a fitness test on the bruising above his left knee.

If D’Arcy fails to be given the green light, Paddy Wallace will be promoted from outside the squad straight into the 22.

Ireland are heavy favourites to complete the Triple Crown but retain little hope of successfully defending their title.

They need England to wreck France’s Grand Slam party in Paris while hoping that both themselves and Martin Johnson’s side make heavy inroads into the Les Bleus’ vastly superior points difference of plus 50.