Ireland Squad for Six Nations

The good old Six Nations Championship has rolled round yet again and it remains a competition that is high in Ireland’s list of measurable successes. As Declan Kidney says,

The RBS 6 Nations Championship remains one of the best tournaments in world rugby. We will be treating it as a separate entity from what happens over the rest of the year and focus on building on the positives from November for the Championship.

Reading between the lines and looking at the aging squad, rolled out yet again, it looks to me as though Kidney reckons that there is (at least) one more “last hurrah” left in the bruised and aching bodies of his select few.

It’s a big gamble in my opinion, but one that may just work. Ireland have the tricky fixtures of England and France at home and given that  as many as 10 or 12 of the existing squad could be retiring or discarded after the World Cup and the possibility of a further four or five moving abroad as the Irish economy continues to bite this championship may be the last chance for many of this squad to record wins over their chief . . .