The Autumn Internationals finished in style for Ireland yesterday at Croke Park with a hard fought 15-10 win over South Africa. It was dubbed as the Champions of Europe versus the Champions of the Southern Hemisphere in the media here and there was a lot written about there being bad blood between the players in the aftermath of the Lions tour.

I don’t think this Irish team needed to draw on their experiences down in South Africa during the summer as beating any of the big 3 Southern Hemisphere countries on our home patch is a big enough carrot in its own right. This win ensure that Ireland are unbeaten in 11 games in 2009 and when you factor in that Ireland A won the Churchill cup and Leinster and Munster the Heineken Cup and Magners League then it’s clearly Irish rugby’s most successful season ever.

Declan Kidney won the IRB Coach of the year award after the match and typical of the man he diverted all the credit to his backroom team and players.

The most impressive thing about Kidneys reign thus far is that he said at the outset to the players and to the media that he was going to build a squad and he has rotated and blooded players whilst still winning. Every Irish Qualified player feels that they will get the opportunity to represent Ireland if they play well enough for their Club/Province which is vital.

This sounds like it should be the case in every team whether Club or country but trust me it is not. Four players won their first caps over the 3 match series with 3 of them being Leinster teammates of mine. Cian Healy and Johnny Sexton made a huge impact in their 2 starts and Sean O Brien came on a replacement against Fiji and South Africa and showed his talent.

Ireland now look to have strength in depth in every position and are the team to beat on form in the Six nations.

To miss out on being involved in the Autumn series was very disappointing but credit to Declan Kidney he rang me the day before the squad was officially announced to let me know and explain that I hadn’t had enough quality game time under my belt. He said that there is still an opportunity to make it back into the squad for the 6 nations should my form warrant it and that is the goal that I have set myself. I have been dropped from Irish Squads on 6 occasions before and I believe in my ability to get back in there.

Leinster had no matches over the past month and with the majority of the senior squad involved in the senior squad or Ireland A games against Tonga and Argentina A there was only 8 of us training everyday in Leinster. It was like a mini preseason with the emphasis on Conditioning, Weights and Fitness predominantly.

We were on a 5 day week with the weekends off; to make things more interesting the fitness coaches split us into two teams for conditioning games and other activities to break up the monotony. The teams were “Rest of the World” which comprised Stan Wright (Cook Islander) Isa Nacewa (Kiwi) Shaun Berne(Australian) and Richard Strauss(South African) against the Irish team of yours truly, Malcolm O Kelly, Girvan Dempsey and Chris Keane. The competition ran over the course of the month and we the Irish team won it in the last round which was a game of water polo.

We haven’t decided a suitable punishment yet for the losers but I am sure it won’t be pleasant!

Normal service will resume in Leinster this week as we will have a full squad back training although some guys may be rested for the trip to Wales to play the Gwent Dragons in the Magners League next Sunday.

We are currently top of the Magners we need to get an away win to stay ahead and also to build confidence going into the crucial back to back Heineken Cup games against the Scarlets. We can’t qualify from our group in December but we can put ourselves in a situation where we can’t qualify which would be a disaster.

In addition to being a professional player with Leinster this season I am also the Director of Rugby with Clontarf Rugby Club in Dublin.

I joined Clontarf 13 years ago and they were responsible for me getting my opportunity to play rugby for a living. I have coached 3 junior rugby clubs in Leinster over the past 5 years and thankfully they all won their respective leagues. Over the summer I got the opportunity to get involved at a higher level and it was an opportunity that I couldn’t turn down.

Clontarf play in the top division of the All Ireland League and have been one of the most consistent clubs in the country over the last 10 years having been to the final 3 times albeit not having secured a title yet.

My role is to try and ensure that we win that Title and also to ensure that there is an environment that will produce players that can make it as professionals particularly for those who miss out on Provincial academies and also to improve players who just play rugby socially.

I have a very good head coach in Simon Broughton who looks after the team on match days and I help out with the forwards when I am available. I really enjoy coaching and it is something that I want to pursue full time when I finish playing.

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