RUGBY:AS EXPECTED, Declan Kidney strongly indicated there will be a significant number of changes to the Ireland team for next Saturday's game against France in Bordeaux, where they will also be seeking to exorcise a few demons from the games with Namibia and Georgia four years ago.

“I would have different combinations in my head but I’m not going to bring fellas into camp who don’t have the possibility of going,” said Kidney. “So everybody in there has a good chance of going and this week we’ll have another game in Bordeaux . . . We’ll get another half a dozen or so playing with their provinces, so we’ll get another 28 guys playing then, and that will be good for us.”

“By its nature there are going to be a couple of changes and obviously, I have things in my head then too, it’s not a case of sitting down with a blank sheet after each game, there would be an overall plan for August.”

Though he hates losing, Kidney maintained: “My job is to try to keep a level head and that’s what I’ll do. I know the few things that we have to get right . . . I’m not saying they’re easy to tick because it depends on the opposition, and what the opposition throw at you is always a little bit different.”

Kidney conceded the target runners need to be taking the ball at pace more. “But you’ll take it at pace when you’re winning breakdown ball at pace and the co-ordination of all of that, once it flows, it will flow sweetly.

“But what you need is the jigsaw of the whole thing, which is more important – you go from the set-piece, where you attack first, to the gain-line of the first one, then the quality of that breakdown ball and then you go into three or four phases. The aim will be, like every team in the world, to put pace on the ball but there are a few things that have to happen before that can happen.”

The full back scenario is likely to look healthier again when Geordan Murphy makes his return for Leicester in a pre-season friendly in Montpellier this evening following on from Rob Kearney’s highly encouraging return in Murrayfield.

Admitting to having been unusually nervous all week, Kearney’s relief was palpable. It felt good to be back and, most importantly, his knee felt brilliant, though he admitted: “When I saw Felix (Jones, who replaced Luke Fitzgerald) on the line at 60 I was not happy to be coming off, but I had sort of prepped, maybe foolishly, during the week for 60-70 minutes. And then I cramped towards the end on the 76th minute when they scored their try, so I was probably a little bit surprised I came through the full 80 and was given the full 80.”

In a nice touch after the game, Kearney presented his jersey to Irish physio Brian Green, hugely popular and respected within the Irish set-up.

“He’s been fantastic over the last nine months for me and when you are out injured, you are out in the cold a little bit at times and you only have your rehabilitator to whinge down the phone to and give out to and throw your strops with and he was brilliant. Between himself and Stephen Smith back at Leinster, who was my rehabilitator there, I was really lucky to have both of them and I couldn’t appreciate their work, their time and effort any more and it was just a small gesture, nothing big. But I just wanted them to know how much I appreciated it.”