AN Ireland XV (no caps) will take on Fiji at Thomond Park on November 17. Even though the game is not a full international, Ireland coach Declan Kidney is taking the game as seriously as any other Ireland game, making sure the senior backroom team takes control of the fixture.
“I’ll be treating it as everything and that’s why the management wanted to coach the team rather than back off. My understanding is Fiji will be putting out a full Test team so while it’s an uncapped international, we’re treating it as an international”.
Ireland face South Africa, (November 10) Fiji, (November 17) and Argentina, (November 24) as part of the Guinness Autumn International series. World ranking points are crucial for Ireland and the Argentina game once more looks like it could be a make or break game for World Cup qualification rankings. Kidney knows that a lot of rugby has to be played before then, so the make up of his 15 for Autumn is not yet clear.
“There are no guarantees of what I can do for the Fiji game, with regard to what the strength of the team will be,” he added. “We’ll have to see how fellas fare in the first two months of the season. As we talk, some lads are just making their way back but there are four or five games to get themselves ready for selection and we’ll see how they’re going after the opener against South Africa. Of the 15 who will play against South Africa, there will probably be some changes for the following week. I wouldn’t be tying myself into exactly how many I’ll make, because if for whatever reason, some guys need to play who played against South Africa, then they’ll play again. But there will definitely be other guys coming through as well. If we are treating it as an international match, you don’t want to be handing the jersey out easily, so fellas are going to have to earn it.”
The IRFU and Munster are trying to make the Fiji game as attractive and as accessible for the rugby public as they can. A three match pack costing €65 for adults and €44 for children will cover Munster v Edinburgh in the Heineken Cup; Ireland v Fiji and Munster v Zebre in the RaboDirect Pro12 league.
Several other offers including Bus Tour and Club Tour offers can be found on www.munsterrugby.ie and www.irfu.ie. Kick off on November 17 is at 17.30.
