Yes all the talk for Declan Kidney before these warm up games started was it was very important to get match time for his squad and lift the performances but nobody I think expected them to be 0-3 in their international series.

And even the above plan couldn’t be stuck to, for a team that played more warm up games than most they still have a team starting this Saturday that contains plenty of players who still badly need time on the pitch, Geordan Murphy, Tommy Bowe, David Wallace, Stephen Ferris have next to no time between them and then you have the ones who have played little, Paul O’Connell, Flannery, Heaslip and then you’ve got the likes of young Conor Murray on the bench who most certainly has to get as much time on the pitch as he can to get some experience at playing at this level!

Makes you wonder what way the teams were put together in the first place?!

During the week the main talking points was the travelling squad that was announced, as with all of these there are some guys who should have made it and some who shouldn’t and the names you fill in there is all depending who you are talking to!

The omission of Luke Fitzgerald and Tomas O’Leary grabbed the main headlines. O’Leary plain and simple just suffered the consequences of a bad game against the French last week, to think about it if he had just played alright and did nothing special but not mess up he would have travelled as no.1, a big fall from grace!

Luke would tell you himself that he’s not quite there form wise yet but he was starting to show it and I would have brought a attacking talent like him along, replacing someone like Paddy Wallace as utility back.

Everyone thought John “The Bull” Hayes was going to travel when we saw how Buckley got done over against the French over there but we should always remember Kidney a conservative man and he had made his mind up on this one a while ago!

This should be a cracking game at the weekend, with more pressure on Ireland to get the result and England will be looking to right the result from the last time they travelled to Dublin, should be a cracker!!

Shane