O'Callaghan keen to avoid Kidney's ire

Donncha O’Callaghan today revealed that fear of another roasting from Declan Kidney has sharpened Ireland’s determination to address their discipline problems.

The Irish head to Cardiff for Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations showdown against Wales with a fiery rebuke from their head coach still ringing in their ears.

Kidney delivered his warning during last week’s meeting to analyse the 21-18 victory over Scotland, a result that saw them hammered 13-4 on the penalty count.

The indiscipline transformed what should have been a comfortable win into a hair-raising afternoon as the Scots fought back in the final quarter.

Captain Brian O’Driscoll issued a strong warning that the penalties must stop, but O’Callaghan insists Kidney’s involvement has raised the stakes.

“Whoever was in on our meeting with Declan last Tuesday wouldn’t want to be on the end of a silly penalty this weekend,” said the Munster lock.

“Everyone probably knows Declan as a nice man who is really calm and composed. But he let fly on Tuesday.

“It has been a while since he lost his temper. I can remember one or two with Munster, but it’s fair to say he was fairly annoyed.

“We know him so it’s tough for him to be that blunt and direct. It’s a side to him that you don’t like to see too much.

“You can say you should self-police within the team and Paul O’Connell and Brian O’Driscoll were saying that, but none of it would carry the weight like when it came from Declan there on Tuesday.

“You could see it’s the main man calling the shots and guys don’t want to re-offend.

“There’s a balance to strike because you don’t want to be playing with 15 altar boys.

“There are certain balls you have to contest, and there are certain penalties we’re going to give away.

“But it’s getting the balance right between the crazy, stupid ones that just cost your team.

“We gave away 12 penalties and they say in international rugby you tend to give away eight, so exactly, we had four stupid penalties and you can control those ones.

“It’s just the ones that you can control that are the massive problem and it spreads across everything, really, error rate and stuff like that.”

O’Driscoll has blamed media pundits for the negativity that currently shrouds the team, but O’Callaghan insists expectation levels are also responsible.

“I was watching the show on Moss Finn last night and you saw when once we won the Triple Crown, people were running on the pitch, lifting the players off it,” he said.

“And you’re thinking if we won a Triple Crown now, they’d probably be giving out to us.

“That’s probably due to the high standards that are expected now and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

“We can’t play the small Paddies anymore, those days are gone.

“We’ve won European Cups, we’ve won Grand Slams, we’ve picked up a few scalps - South Africa, Australia.

“People’s expectations are way higher than they should be and I think that’s not a bad thing.”