Rory Best will under a late fitness test on a shoulder injury he picked up against Italy with Sean Cronin waiting in the wings. The teams have to be in 48 hours before kick-off and Kidney says he may make that call as late as the last minute! If Cronin is promoted to the starting line-up then Damien Varley would be promoted to the bench. Otherwise the pack is unchanged.

IRELAND Team & Replacements (v Wales, 2011 Rugby World Cup quarter-final, Wellington Regional Stadium, Saturday, October 8, kick-off 6pm local time/6am Irish time):

15 - Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
14 - Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
13 - Brian O’Driscoll (UCD/Leinster) (capt)
12 - Gordon D’Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
11 - Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)
10 - Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
9 - Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster)
1 - Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
2 - Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)/Sean Cronin (Leinster)
3 - Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
4 - Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
5 - Paul O’Connell (Young Munster/Munster)
6 - Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)
7 - Sean O’Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
8 - Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)

Replacements:

16 - Sean Cronin (Leinster)/Damien Varley (Garryowen/Munster)
17 - Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
18 - Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)
19 - Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster)
20 - Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
21 - Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
22 - Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)

Horan has claimed he was told about the tactic by Alan Gaffney, but Kidney denies the allegations describing them as:

 ”incredulous and slightly scandalous”

Horan criticised Bryce Lawrence as well, but conceded:

“Ireland deserved to win and always would have won”

Donncha O’Callaghan reveals:

“The silly ones will always annoy you and I think anyone who was in our meeting with Deccie in Carton House wouldn’t want to be on the end of a silly penalty this week,”

“Because, to be fair, you probably know him all as a nice man and really calm and composed, but he f*****g let fly on Tuesday and you just don’t want to be in there, following the review of that game, being on the end of something silly.”

The camp has made lots of noise about refereeing reviews and calls from the captain to drop re-offending players, but it seems Kidney is determined to draw a line under the issue.

Lets hope it improves against Wales to prevent further annoyance to the coach!

It is thought that Heaslip has signed an improved deal in the region of €400,000-€500,000 per year with incentives, and Sexton’s deal is likely to be in the region of €350,000-€400,000, including incentives.

O’Driscoll turned 32 a fortnight ago and is thought to have accepted a reduction in his basic package.

There are tax breaks for players remaining in Ireland along with more lucrative commercial opportunities which are thought to have helped value an Irish deal more highly than French valuations for these players.

Declan Kidney must be relieved to see pen on paper ahead of the games beginning for this years Six Nations

Four uncapped players make the squad Fergus McFadden, Dan Tuohy, Ed O?Donoghue and Chris Henry.

On Saturday Ireland head to the Southern Hemisphere for tests against New Zealand and Australia, and tackling the Maori in the middle. All big games, and with many players last week still involved in Magners League and Guinees Premiership the coach needs a balance between game time and picking fringe players to perhaps have a go at the Maori.

Kearney and Horgan will play their second game in a week as O’Gara captains Ireland for the second time in O’Driscoll’s absence.

Ireland will face a few familar faces from the Barbarians, Paul Warwick, Malcolm O’Kelly and Alan Quinlan – close friends of many of the current Ireland squad!

Kidney also confirmed that he will hound a request to release two Ireland players (unnamed as yet) to play for the NZ Barbarians agains the Maori on the same day Ireland face the All Blacks.

Ireland will face the might of the All Blacks, Australia, the Barbarians and the New Zealand Maori all in June, so Kidney will be looking to test his squad depth after losing bothe the RBS 6 Nations and Triple Crown trophies.

Kidney commented on his selection process saying that he’s tried to get the right mix of experience and youth capping three new players and including four who don’t have a lot of game time.

“… they are going to need experienced players around them, because when you’re playing the number one and three ranked teams in the world then you’re going to need all the experience you have.

“There’s no hiding place, you could get wildly exposed and anytime you have a green jersey on, you don’t want that to happen.”

McFadden, Henry and Tuohy have all played for Ireland Wolfhounds (formerly Ireland ‘A’) in the last 12 months.

The team set to take on the Welsh was announced today and coach Declan Kidney has selected Tomas O’Leary to take up the crucial position of scrum half. He will also be relying on Brian O’Driscoll to continue with his great leadership role into the last game.

Irish team

R Kearney (Leinster); T Bowe (Ospreys), B O’Driscoll (Leinster, captain), G D’Arcy (Leinster), L Fitzgerald (Leinster); R O’Gara (Munster), T O’Leary (Munster); M Horan (Munster), J Flannery (Munster), J Hayes (Munster), D O’Callaghan (Munster), P O’Connell (Munster), S Ferris (Ulster), D Wallace (Munster), J Heaslip (Leinster).

Replacements: R Best (Ulster), T Court (Ulster), M O’Driscoll (Munster), D Leamy (Munster), P Stringer (Munster), P Wallace (Ulster), G Murphy (Leicester).

After a mixed autumn which saw the Irish beat Argentina but suffer a heavy defeat by the All Blacks, they’ll need their wits about them for the opener.

A dose of realism is required according to Kidney following the high expectations people have of his team. After three triple crowns in four years Ireland had their worst performance in some years last year costing Eddie O’Sullivan his job.

Kidney was quick to point out that for some teams they will face in the coming weeks that Rugby is their primary sport. France have 14 professional teams, England a dozen, Ireland is a small country trying to compete and they’ll give it their best shot.

France have gone out on a limb and named only one recognised flyhalf and goalkicker in Lionel Beauxis – it was wideley expected that Elissalde would feature as cover for Beauxis however Lievrement has named Sebastien Tillous-Borde and Morgan Parra, who are 23 and 20 respectively.

This is the latest Lievremonts decisions that reflect his interest in the 2011 World Cup as he stated that there are only 25 games until then and it was time to toughen the youngsters up!

France RBS 6 Nations squad v Ireland, Saturday 7 February, 5.00pm:

Forwards: Nicolas Mas, Lionel Faure, Benoit Lecouls, Fabien Barcella, Dimitri Szarzewski, Benjamin Kayser, Sebastien Chabal, Lionel Nallet (captain), Romain Millo-Chluski, Thierry Dusautoir, Fulgence Ouedraogo, Louis Picamoles, Imanol Harinordoquy.

Backs: Sebastien Tillous-Borde, Morgan Parra, Lionel Beauxis, Yannick Jauzion, Benoit Baby, Florian Fritz, Julien Malzieu, Cedric Heymans, Clement Poitrenaud, Maxime Medard.

Kidney who now has completed his first autumn ad head coach was surprised by the lack of belief in a team that won three Triple Crowns.

‘The lack of confidence is a thing and we must get that balance right and be reasonably critical, not being too over-the-top hysterical when we win a match,’ he said.

‘If that happens then going forward as a rugby team we can be better if everyone feeds into that. We are no different to what we were ten years ago.

‘We are a small country and we can achieve great things but we should not get too hyper if we win. And let’s not get too down when we lose.’

Geordan Murphy, Jerry Flannery and Stephen Ferris are all drafted back in for the crunch match to ensure Ireland end up in the pool they want for the World Cup Draw.

Commenting on the challenge, Kidney said:

“It’s going to be very physical. It’s an unusual situation in that there’s so much to play for – the ramifications for them to stay in the top four (of the rankings), the ramifications for us for not getting a result.

“They can get drop goals if you let them inside your half, they can pick off points like that. They do have a way of keeping the scoreboard ticking along. They have a strong set piece.

“You don’t get to be ranked fourth by having a bad side. I was also interested looking at the South Africa match during the summer.

“After 30 minutes they were 9-0 up. Two months off with not a whole lot of pre-season under their belt but they showed what they can do.
“Every time you played them there was always something on the line over the last number of years .

“History is history…you have to see ten matches. It’s five-all and they have won the last three. We just have to concentrate on our game.”

Discussing the changes made to the side that lost 22-3 to New Zealand, Kidney agreed that once again there were a number of tight calls.

“Geordan (Murphy) has been playing well. Full-back is just an area that is highly competitive at the moment.

“It was tight over who would start over the last two weekends. We just thought he was the right man for this job.

“Stephen (Ferris) started against Canada. He played well. I would have had that in mind before last night’s hearing (for Alan Quinlan).

“At hooker, it’s a case of two guys playing well with a third man, Bernard (Jackman), breathing down their necks.

“Jerry (Flannery) played very well when he started against Canada and he played well last week. It’s not that Rory has done a whole lot wrong. It is just a judgement call really.

“The provincial coaches know all about it – the six-day, seven-day or eight-day turnaround. That’s the fine line and the way things go.”

Best will take his place on the replacements bench, having recovered from a dead leg, while Paul O’Connell retains his second row spot after fighting off a similar injury.

However, Kidney has some other concerns as he looks to confirm who will take the back row vacancy left in the replacements.

“There are a number of concerns. Shane Jennings picked up a knee injury,” he said.

“Denis Leamy, who had also been training with us, took a knock playing for Munster on Tuesday night. We’d be just hopeful that it would work out and Alan would be available.”

The appeal of Quinlan’s ban will take place in Dublin tomorrow (Friday) and the Irish management will await its result with interest.