KEY POINTS:
Drive-through internationals are a strange phenomenon anyway, made even more unusual this time with Ireland and England both here without their appointed coaches.
Well actually, new Irish coach Declan Kidney is here ... but not really.
Not in his official capacity anyway, though he will be at the Cake Tin, apparently, observing the side he will head later in the year.
Meanwhile Michael Bradley is filling the caretaker role, with Rob Andrew doing the same for England while coach Martin Johnson is at home awaiting the birth of his second child.
Kidney's choice seems bizarre. His rationale goes like this. He wanted to devote all his time to Munster as they chased the Heineken Cup, he felt he was not the preferred candidate of the Irish Rugby Union and was concerned they would impose their backroom assistants on him.
So he opted to wind down slowly after Munster's triumph, he wanted to meet some contenders who might come on board to help run the Ireland squad and he thought it best to watch from the bleachers.
"Dunno", "dunno" and "dunno" were the three responses from inquiries yesterday about the arrival time, lodgings and chances of an interview with Kidney.
Most odd. Ireland lie eighth in the world rankings, clinging to the second tier of teams who will be seeded after December 1 when the year's results are collated.
Quite why a new coach would not want to roll his sleeves up and get into that work is baffling.
