Despite carrying some baggage from his time with Leinster, the Munster coach has the skills needed to bring Ireland to the next level, writes Gerry Thornley

THIS IS getting a little messy, and it has the potential to become messier. To the backdrop of a lack of trust in the IRFU and their ability to manage the game in a professional way, and as they await any signs of white smoke from the powers that be, players, when asked for their opinions on the vacancy/vacuum at the top of the game, clearly have manifold reservations.

Alas and alack, it's becoming equally clear that those reservations in the Leinster set-up extend to the candidature of Declan Kidney. Even though Kidney's record should brook no argument, unfortunately his season with the province in 2004-05 ended on a sour note. And were he to succeed Eddie O'Sullivan, then he will have issues to address with some players.

The residual doubts emanate from Kidney's decision to relocate to Munster while completing contract negotiations with Leinster players and letting some of them go.

Clearly, too, some players feel they need an entirely fresh voice, or set of fresh voices, and coaching ideas to revive their spirits.

Significantly, prior to a record 140th appearance for Leinster in their praiseworthy win away to Llanelli on Saturday, Malcolm O'Kelly, Ireland's most capped player, when asked what he thought, said as much.

"I've had a lot of coaches in my time but I don't think many of them are going to be up for the job, so it's hard to say. I'd like to see someone with a clean slate come through who hasn't got baggage. We'll just have to wait and see, it's out of my hands."

This follows the backing of Pat Howard by, among others, Eoin Reddan, whose career only took off after leaving Munster for Wasps.

Speaking on Newstalk's Off The Ball last week, former Leinster player Victor Costello accepted that Kidney's record with Munster was outstanding, but ventured that "he would probably be a bit too familiar with some of the players, and at this stage if we were to rush in to give someone a four-year contract that wasn't right, well, then we're going to suffer down the road".

While wishing another Heineken Cup triumph upon Munster and Kidney, even in that scenario, the former Irish and Leinster backrower maintained: "A lot of the senior players have heard him for a long time. He was involved in Ireland back in the successful days and also was part of a very successful management team with the likes of Mike Ford, and this was when Eddie O'Sullivan surrounded himself with good people.

"I certainly see a role for Declan Kidney in there," added Costello, in reference to Kidney's role as communicator with the players up to the 2003 World Cup, "but, going forward, I think overall we need an international head coach with new ideas, (at the) cutting edge of world rugby to bring our good players to the next level."

Costello denies his misgivings are motivated by Kidney's decision to select Ciarán Potts ahead of him for Leinster's Heineken Cup quarter-final defeat at home to Leicester in 2005, and in truth he is not the type to bear a grudge. Indeed, he maintains he felt sorrier for Shane Jennings, who had been man of the match in many Leinster pool matches en route to that quarter-final, only to be dropped to the bench for Keith Gleeson.

While lauding the IRFU's structures and Philip Browne's role as chief executive of a professional company, Costello is expressing the concerns of most Irish professional rugby players when he asserts: "The problem with the IRFU is that there is no real professional committee or professional voice, and that's been one of the problems in the last couple of years."

Indeed, were a figure like Conor O'Shea choosing, or at least recommending, the next Irish coach (and ironically he has intimated he would choose Kidney), it would carry much more credibility among the players.

Costello, too, acknowledged Pat Howard, as Brian O'Driscoll had done in a Leinster context in penning his A Year in the Centre in 2005. While also acknowledging Kidney's profound influence on Ireland's Under-19 World Cup triumph of which O'Driscoll was a part, the Irish and Leinster captain admitted that Kidney's departure from Leinster was "for the best", and that he had been "treading water a little" for the previous couple of years.

There will be raised eyebrows out there among the blazers, the rugby public and certainly Munster fans that players should be expressing their views at all, and after all it is believed the Leinster players had a fair say in the hiring of Gary Ella in 2003, not to mention his dismissal within a season.

But, if asked, they're as entitled to their opinion as anyone. And why should their mouths be taped just because they are employees of the IRFU?

The effect, though, is that the succession stakes have become a little divisive, with the potential to become even more so. O'Driscoll recently admitted that he didn't envisage being captain of country and province until the end of his career. He has captained Ireland 46 times, and has always borne that responsibility by trying his guts out (notably in the World Cup) only to suffer a raft of personal disappointments lately. At 29, his career is at something of a crossroads, and if passing on the baton to someone else would see him return to being the best rugby player this country has ever produced and the best centre in the world, then so be it.

However, were that decision to be made by Kidney, the only viable alternatives as captain are the Munster pair of Paul O'Connell and Ronan O'Gara which - in the current climate - might have the potential to revive a Leinster-Munster divide that hasn't been there for years.

Yet, in this, one would have no doubts that Kidney could manage the changeover without that coming to pass. Kidney still looks the right man for the job, and if he has to bring technical expertise around him while also addressing issues with some players, there's no doubt he's more than capable of doing so. Perhaps, though, sooner rather than later would be best.