ALTHOUGH RUMOURS circulated yesterday that Declan Kidney was to be formally confirmed at some juncture today as the next Ireland coach, IRFU sources have indicated no such announcement will be made today.

"There is no prepared plan to make an announcement today," said one IRFU spokesperson last night. And speaking on RTÉ's Six-One News last evening, in a rare comment of any kind, the IRFU chief executive Philip Browne maintained the party line of the last six weeks since Eddie O'Sullivan's resignation: "We have a process ongoing and when that process is completed we'll have something to say."

The indications remain the IRFU appointments committee of Neil Jackson, Noel Murphy and Pa Whelan have chosen Kidney as the man to succeed O'Sullivan from a shortlist of three, which also included John Mitchell and, possibly, Pat Howard.

Kidney himself has made it clear he would not comment on the vacancy or the speculation surrounding it. His short-term commitments have been made clearer by Munster reaching the Heineken Cup final on May 24th, which leaves the IRFU needing to at least choose a caretaker head coach for Ireland's game against the Barbarians three days later, for which Munster players will be unavailable, prior to the squad's departure to New Zealand that week.

When asked about the Ireland job after Sunday's semi-final win over Saracens, Kidney's response indicated he had not been in a position heretofore to make a decision and remained focused on Munster's two Magners League games this week.

"Yeah, I've seen some stuff about that," he said. "Look, I'm not trying to be rude here, but to try and get into the final of this competition is such a tough task to do that to try and think about anything else, you wouldn't get there.

"We have a very important game on Wednesday night in Ravenhill, and we will be up in Llanelli on Saturday."

Although comments by Malcolm O'Kelly and the retired Victor Costello have suggested Kidney's appointment would not be well received in Leinster, in truth there has been little or no negative debate about this issue among their dressingroom and the incumbent Irish captain Brian O'Driscoll last night distanced himself from this perception.

Also on Six-One News, O'Driscoll recalled the Under-19 World Cup success he enjoyed with a team coached by Kidney: "If it is Declan, fantastic, but we'll wait until he signs on the dotted line before we're certain of anything."