Kidney confirms O’Driscoll captain for the eighth year

 
Ireland Head Coach Declan Kidney has confirmed Brian O’Driscoll as captain for the eighth year in succession ahead of the upcoming Internationals against Australia, Fiji and South Africa later this month.

Kidney heaped praise on O’Driscoll, who has captained his country since 2000; while also commending others in the Irish squad for their leadership skills.

“Paul (O’Connnell) has captained the Lions and captained Munster quite well, Donncha (O’Callaghan) has captained the Lions and Ronan (O’Gara) has captained the Lions. Ronan has captained with Munster and Ireland also.

“In Brian’s case he brings a lot of experience to it like the other lads would do, he is motoring well at the moment so we just felt it prudent (to pick him).

“It’s been a long time since we were together, six or seven months so for continuity and for a hold host of reasons really we decided to stay with him.”

And Kidney outlined that the captaincy issue is treated on a series-by-series basis.

“It’s like we dealt with it last year it is just on a series-by-series basis. That helps in Brian’s case too as it doesn’t heap pressure on him for a whole year and allows him to come in and be captain and then just get on with his game then in December and January.

“We will see him again come February, but I think any one of a host of guys could actually do that.”

Kidney says that Brian’s reaction to the news of him continuing to captain his country is one of immense pride.

“He was delighted and that is the thing – he is excited about it as ever really.

“He was really keen on it and that’s an important part too because captain is a bit like some of the ancillary jobs that are going, because not only do you have to play you have to give a bit of yourself to the other members of the team then too.”

He added, “If anything his enthusiasm for the job is growing and that is a great thing because it feeds into the team.”

On injuries Kidney revealed that there are some concerns over a number of players.

“I suppose I’m glad we are not playing this week,” he joked.

“We have a number of players who are at different stages  – Tomas (O’Leary), Paddy Wallace and Denis Leamy have colds.

“We got through training ok this morning but we just had to work our way through it. With the lads playing last weekend, and that’s what we would have wanted as you don’t want to go too long without a game, but you don’t want to cut it too short either.

“Rob (Kearney) was out, Gordon D’Arcy played a little bit of a part this morning as did Brian (O’Driscoll). The non-contact stuff basically for the two of those. Tony Buckley is rehabbing away and that’s probably one of the more long-term ones. It will probably be a week or so before he gets back into it.

“Jerry (Flannery) didn’t tog out today, Leo Cullen is rehabbing and Paddy Wallace is hopefully beginning to get back into things tomorrow.

On Marcus Horan’s current unavailability Kidney was unable to shed much light on the Munster prop’s plight.

“There are ongoing investigations and not being a medic I wouldn’t know (exactly what is wrong). I know that he is not able to train and it is just prudent. It’s the same way that Tomas (O’Leary) isn’t here. He is just getting looked after and as soon as we know more we will let you know.

Marcus hasn’t been involved in any training sessions in the past fortnight, but Kidney has refused to ruled him out for the first Autumn International against Australia at Croke Park on Sunday week.

“In this job you can’t afford to rule guys out until they are definitely out. He would need to be active next week to be involved with it. Tomas hasn’t trained this week at all with us either and the fact that Marcus didn’t train much with Munster at all for a week or so before that (means) that we would have to take a look at how things are and take the best medical advice on the way to go.”

Kidney expects to have definitive information on Horan’s condition by the end of this week.