Rugby:Declan Kidney is refusing to press the panic button despite Ireland's loss to France at the Aviva stadium yesterday, the third straight Saturday they have tasted defeat after the reversals in Bordeaux and Edinburgh.
The Ireland coach announces his 30-man squad for the World Cup in New Zealand at lunchtime tomorrow confronted by the need to halt a confidence-sapping sequence of results. England completes the build-up programme when they visit Dublin on Saturday.
Kidney is convinced the schedule is justified on the grounds of establishing match fitness in his players.
“There was a reason why we went for this number of games. I knew we’d need the games. We’re better off for having them,” he said.
“We obviously need to work on the results, there’s no hiding away from that, but one match is worth about 10 training sessions. We just need more and more of that.”
One player delighted with the opportunity of match practice is hooker Jerry Flannery, who got 20 minutes under his belt after replacing Rory Best in the second-half yesterday
And the Munster player admitted afterwards that his inclusion tomorrow will end a battle with injury that left him “mentally broken”.
Career-threatening calf problems have shackled Flannery to the treatment table for a year, restricting him to only two aborted appearances for Munster last season.
The slow and arduous rehabilitation process took its toll on Flannery’s psyche, but disillusionment has since been replaced by cautious optimism and the 32-year-old is determined to make an impact in New Zealand.
“The last four weeks have been brilliant, even just running around the training field,” he said. “I had a painful time on my own on the sideline watching all of the lads training. It was breaking me mentally.
“I’ve worked as hard as I can and for so long. The medical team and Declan Kidney have shown a huge amount of patience and I want to repay them.
“I want to play as much as I can and if I try to take a positive on the last year, whatever’s been wrong with my calf the rest of my body is pretty fresh.
“I feel mentally fresh and my hunger for the game has never been so great. I don’t want to get fit just to make up the numbers, I want to go out there to do something. I want to play hard and win.”
The fear of breaking down once again continues to pursue Flannery, but his outlook on his fitness has changed.
“I have a good perspective on injuries now I don’t worry about them any more,” he said.
“I don’t worry about the injury now at any stage. It’s got to the point that if it happens, it happens and there’s nothing I can do about it.
“I’m still cautious in managing my workload during the week but on the pitch, it’s full on.”
While Flannery has been heartened by his comeback, Ireland’s problems on the pitch have left him frustrated.
“Last weekend in Bordeaux we were pleased that we finished strongly against France,” he said.
“Things seemed to be coming right and we thought ‘we’ll apply it to next week’. But we can’t keep saying next week, next week. It’s professional rugby and we’re judged on results.
“You have to get it right sooner or later. We were too sloppy for periods and the French exploited that.
“The result against England was always going to be important, regardless of what happened yesterday. It was always going to be huge. But for us things have been heightened a little bit because we’ve had three losses on the bounce.
“We’re trying to go into the World Cup in a good frame of mind and that will be based on victory.”
Flannery insists Ireland should be in a better position.
“When I was in the depths last year I looked at the Ireland side, watching them in the Six Nations and seeing Leinster go so well, he said.
“I thought we have so many quality players and such depth that it would just be a case of getting it right.
“That’s the frustrating thing we’ve lost three games on the trot but the players are there. When you lose, that cloud follows you around and it’s a pain in the arse.”
