Declan Kidney announced a 32-strong Irish squad yesterday for the opening match of the Six Nations against Wales.
Forwards
Props: Tom Court (Malone/Ulster); Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster); Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster); Brett Wilkinson (Galwegians/Connacht)*
Hookers: Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster); Sean Cronin (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
Second rows: Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster); Paul O’Connell (Young Munster/Munster); Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster); Dan Tuohy (Ballymena/Ulster)
Backrows: Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster); Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster); Chris Henry (Ballymena/Ulster); Shane Jennings (St. Mary’s College/Leinster); Sean O’Brien (Clontarf/Leinster); Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster)*; Rhys Ruddock (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
Backs
Scrum-halves: Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster); Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
Out-halves: Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster); Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
Centres: Gordon D’Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster); Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster); Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster); Eoin O’Malley (Old Belvedere/Leinster)*; Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)
Wings: Tommy Bowe (Ospreys); David Kearney (Lansdowne/Leinster)*; Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster); Simon Zebo (Cork Constitution/Munster)*
Fullbacks: Denis Hurley (Cork Constitution/Munster); Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
32 Players [17 forwards, 15 backs]
Leinster 14 [7 forwards, 7 backs]
Munster 9 [4 forwards, 5 backs]
Ulster 7 [5 forwards, 2 backs]
Connacht 1 [1 forward]
Ospreys 1 [1 back]
‘”I could have showboated at the start — the easier thing for me to do would have been to name the squad I named today two weeks ago. That would have been looking after myself, but I wanted to look after the Wolfhounds,” he said.
“We lost an ‘A’ game to Scotland a few years ago just before the Six Nations by 50-odd points — that doesn’t do anyone any good. I was making damn sure that didn’t happen again. We needed to be competitive the other night against England and, though we lost the game, we were competitive.’
Complicated webs and all that from Declan Kidney in today’s Indo. Worth a read.
Digging Like a Demented Mole 
Doin’ the mind guerrilla.
People would have less of a beef with Kidney if he said these things when he was asked them first time around – it’s honest, and it makes sense.
I’m not sure he needs to be so ‘smoke and dagger’ about his decision making. What does it really get him in the long run?
A much better reflection of Irish rugby as She lays en ce moment.
Agree with you (again) about thinking behind announcing an enlarged (bloated?) 73 man, 3 squad announcement but with Ref (Gaffers) gone I am genuinely excited about the Irish backline. And as blasphemous as it sounds, the prospect of a new Irish 13 is raising good questions of this side.
The Special Interest group of which I may have mentioned, along with some particularly “interested” cattle farmers of an Ulster persuasion, have parked some side-projects for now.