Kidney hints at change of captaincy

Rugby: Newly-appointed Ireland coach Declan Kidney has hinted he may take the captaincy away from Brian O'Driscoll.

Last season proved to be a difficult one for O'Driscoll, despite Leinster's Magners League success and Ireland's gutsy summer tour to New Zealand and Australia.

The talismanic centre shouldered much of the burden as Ireland slumped alarmingly in the World Cup and RBS 6 Nations championship, the men in green ending the season eighth in the IRB world rankings.

That leaves the Irish needing a productive November series against Canada, New Zealand and Argentina - because the IRB are using the rankings to seed teams for the 2011 Rugby World Cup draw, and December 1st is the cut-off point.

Were Kidney to relieve O'Driscoll of the Irish captaincy, the hope would be that the 29-year-old would thrive without the responsibility and rediscover his best form.

Munster duo Paul O'Connell and Ronan O'Gara would be prime candidates to take on the armband.

"Brian and I have been talking and taking a look at things. Come November we'll take a good look at it and we'll see how things are going," said Kidney, who has an extended Ireland squad together this week in Cork.

"At the moment, I think it's important that he just gets a chance to concentrate on his own game - because he's been shouldering things for the last five years.

"We'll see how things go. He's done a very good job (as captain) - you don't win three Triple Crowns and just throw that away too easily!

"At the same time, you want to give him a small bit of space.

"Without naming a captain...it wouldn't be usual anyway to name a captain at the start of a (coaching) set-up. We'll just see how things go and give him a chance to enjoy his own rugby."

Explaining his aims for his first season in charge, Kidney added: "November is probably more important than it ever has been this year, in that there's IRB world ranking points - wherever we stand on December 1st is going to have an effect on the draw for the next World Cup.

"So it has a three-year effect how we go in the next three matches, and that will focus minds.

"In the Six Nations, first up it's France at home. I suppose the last time Ireland played France at home, it was just a hop of the ball between having a disappointing day and a great win that could have led to all sorts of things. It would be nice to turn that one around."

Meanwhile Ireland team manager Paul McNaughton has confirmed the proposed South Africa v Ireland Test match, which the World Cup-holders wanted to stage in the United Arab Emirates on November 1, is now "90 per cent certain not to go ahead".

"We're of the understanding that it's not going to go ahead. We keep on trying to get updates ourselves from the people who are trying to organise the game," he said.

"If it doesn't go ahead, we don't anticipate arranging another Test in its place."