The Irish coach feels Tomás O'Leary is ready to deliver on the biggest stage of all, reports Keith Duggan
ALTHOUGH DECLAN Kidney is not readily associated with gestures of high drama, there was no escaping the boldness of his selection policy when he walked before the cameras accompanied by the Irish captain Brian O'Driscoll and the man of the moment, Tomás O'Leary.
The young Cork scrumhalf looked composed at the top table and said all the right things but privately his mind must have been racing as he contemplates the latest challenge in what has been a stunning year. While the public attention was focused on the choice of fullback for Saturday evening's Test against the All Blacks, Kidney - with trademark nonchalant daring - opted for the form and strength of O'Leary for his first serious Test as international coach.
The promotion of O'Leary is a big extension of the faith that Kidney demonstrated in O'Leary during the cutting-edge stages of Munster's Heineken Cup run last spring. Eyebrows were raised when Kidney picked O'Leary instead of Peter Stringer, the vastly experienced Munster and Ireland veteran who has a proven big-game temperament. But O'Leary took his chance with the conviction and control that Kidney had expected of him during the play-off games of that second European triumph.
And now, the Irish coach obviously believes he is ready to translate that maturity on to the biggest stage - against the most fearsome and respected team in world rugby. It makes for a perfect story, given O'Leary will be starting in Croke Park for the first time since his now fabled days as a rising star of Cork hurling. He captained the Rebel minor side to the All-Ireland minor championship in 2001 and looked set to follow the gilded career of his father, Seanie, when he made the brave and uncertain decision to follow his fortunes in professional rugby.
O'Leary had not yet had time to phone his family to explain his good news when he faced the cameras and although he played it deadpan, there was no disguising the thrill in his voice when he spoke about an extraordinary morning at the Irish training camp.
"I just heard this morning, when Deccie named the team," he said. "We had been swapping in and out during training, so you never know until he names the team. I've been professional four or five years now, and I've been working hard to improve my game. I think I've done that, and it's only in the last year that I've reaped most of those benefits."
Kidney admitted he had found Tuesday evening - when he had to prowl the hotel corridors of the team hotel to break the news to those who had not been selected - to be a rough experience. Playing against the All Blacks is not just an ordinary cap: in an age of frequent internationals, it represents a permanent memory.
O'Leary's elevation is hardly a left-field choice but it does underline how tight the competition for Irish jerseys has become.
Eoin Reddan is bound to be bitterly disappointed at his demotion and just last month, Peter Stringer looked to have regained his customary sharpness when he returned to the Munster first team during a period when O'Leary was nursing a foot injury.
Although O'Leary spent several seasons toiling in obscurity as he learned his trade in the Munster set-up, his rise since has been admirable. He signed a contract with his home province in July in 2005 - the period when Reddan, frustrated by the lack of first-team opportunities available to him - left the club and (successfully) sought to prove himself in England.
But it was only last year when O'Leary got his chance to shine as a starter and his form and decision-making since that Heineken Cup appearance against Gloucester have been exemplary. Now it has been rewarded in the most handsome terms possible.
Kidney was understandably cautious about explaining in depth the reasons he plumped for O'Leary for this match.
"We have four good scrumhalves," he said carefully. "They all do different things. I am not going to sit here and talk one player over another or say, sure we had to give Tomás a go one time. He has good attributes but I don't think four days before the game, I would go through them to be loading them on. Everyone has seen them anyway. He has played well, as he did last season, and he is keeping out some exceptionally good players so he must be doing something right. I just want him to be himself."
If O'Leary was fazed by any of this, he masked it well, self-deprecatingly reflecting on his first big-time outing in an Irish shirt, on the infamous summer tour of Argentina before the World Cup last year.
"I just came on five minutes from the end on the wing, there was an injury to Andrew Trimble in the back line. I was the last man on the bench, so I got five minutes on."
There will be nothing token about this latest appearance. Ireland have yet to beat New Zealand and on what could be a damp, windy evening in Croke Park, expectation will be rampant.
Perhaps, in addition to O'Leary's skill and toughness in the number nine position, the family name will prove something of a lucky charm when it comes to the old stadium. After all, O'Leary senior was no stranger to big victories on Jones's Road. And chances are that Seanie will be more nervous on Saturday evening than he was for any of his great escapades in the Cork jersey.
"Haven't told him yet," Ireland's new number nine confessed. "He'll probably hear it before I tell him, but I'm sure they'll be delighted, me mum and dad."
