Kidney to wait on Kearney

Ireland coach Declan Kidney will wait until after the Captain’s Run at Croke Park tomorrow to make a decision on whether to risk Rob Kearney at fullback. The Leinster player is struggling with an ankle injury and will be replaced by Geordan Murphy if he has not recovered in time to face France in the Six Nations Championship opener at Croke Park on Saturday.

In that instance, Kearney’s Leinster team-mate Girvan Dempsey is the most likely candidate to be brought on to the bench. Another option would be to call on Shane Horgan and shift either Luke Fitzgerald or Tommy Bowe to fullback if Murphy needs to withdrawn at any stage.

Kearney sustained the injury in an accidental collision in training on Tuesday morning and was on crutches for the remainder of the day.

After intensive physiotherapy during yesterday’s ‘down day’, he took a limited part in today’s session.

France coach Marc Lievremont has urged his players to liberate themselves and fulfill their potential at Croke Park. Speaking at the team's training camp in France today, Lievremont said this was the first time in a year that injuries had not prevented him from fielding the team he wanted.

"Our ambition is to play our own game and win. I told the players 'free yourselves and show your potential'," he added.

The French coach said that after a year in charge he was approaching the first game of the championship "with more demands, more expectations and more hopes".

"More conviction too that this squad is strong, consistent, able to play good rugby and to beat anybody," he said.

Lievremont said Ireland would be demanding opponents even though France have defeated them in their last seven encounters.

"This Ireland team inspire in us the greatest respect," he said. "Their organisation, the quality of their players, their coherence, the context of Croke Park and the growing expectations of the Irish supporters are factors which will make that game particularly difficult."

Asked about the weaknesses of his team, Lievremont said he had detected a tendency to fade away in the last 20 minutes.

"If you look at last year's important games, against England, Ireland and Wales in the Six Nations and against Australia in November, we suffered after an hour of play and when we cracked we did crack in all sectors," he said.

"We did our best to make the players aware of that and asked them to keep composure and concentration until the final whistle, whatever the score."