Kidney to choose from full squad

NEWS ROUND-UP:IRELAND TEAM manager Paul McNaughton confirmed that coach Declan Kidney will have a full complement of players from which to choose the team to face Wales in the Six Nations Championship match at Croke Park on Saturday.

The Irish squad trained yesterday in Greystones and will have another session this morning ahead of a lunch-time team announcement. Injury concerns with regard to Rob Kearney, Jamie Heaslip and captain, Brian O’Driscoll have evaporated as all three took part.

McNaughton explained: “Everything looks fine on the injury front. Rob Kearney did well, Jamie Heaslip did well and trained fully and Brian trained fully. We are reasonably fortunate that there were no real injuries brought back to the squad in relation to the Magners League matches that we played, so all of those guys came through fine.

“The Leinster guys didn’t train today (Monday) but they will be training tomorrow (Tuesday). We have a good, clean bill of health at the moment. He (Kearney) took a full part in training but it wasn’t a heavy contact session and he’ll have more contact tomorrow (Tuesday). But based on what we saw we think he’ll be eligible for consideration.

“We’re fortunate that we’re in that position that we have two quality fullbacks to choose from. They are both very experienced players now, Rob is experienced now and Geordan (Murphy) has been around a long time. The fact we have the two; we wouldn’t have had that two years ago.”

The Ireland team manager explained the process that O’Driscoll had undergone following his accidental collision with Paul O’Connell at Twickenham.

“I don’t think there were even proper tests several years ago. You had your three-week lay-off from rugby when the doctor considered you had concussion.

“Nowadays in professional rugby you have the various psychometric, cognitive tests and even at that it’s best practice also if there is a suspicion of concussion and even if you pass the cognitive tests, to go to a neurologist before a player goes back. In Brian’s case, he had no problems with the cognitive tests and we brought him to a neurologist as well. He’s fine.”

Meanwhile, Gloucester captain and number eight, Gareth Delve was yesterday called into the Wales squad. The Welsh recently lost Ospreys lock Alun-Wyn Jones (injury) and Blues backrow Andy Powell (suspension).

The four-times capped Delve, who returns to the international scene for the first time since 2008, will also provide cover for the Wales captain Ryan Jones whose calf problems have been well documented during the current campaign.

Wales assistant coach Neil Jenkins admitted: “We are expecting Ryan to be fine. But we have called on Gareth to boost the squad numbers in the forwards and provide cover in that backrow area.

“We have been keeping a close eye on him, no one more so than Shaun Edwards whose Wasps side beat Gloucester at the weekend, and we think he has been playing well and will do a job for us if called upon.”