Competition for places pleases Kidney

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Kidney will send the same team into battle for a third successive match as the Irish continue their push for a first championship title since 1985.

"There are lots of guys I'd love to play, good players who aren't getting a chance to play. That's the making of a good side," he said. "The players in the side know that if there's any relaxation at all there are guys ready to take their place."

He added: "In terms of developing the squad work has been done on that behind the scenes. Talk about competition for places is not just lip service.

"Pressure is being applied from beneath and if you're worried about your place in the team then it spurs you on to play better."

England are not expected to derail Irish ambitions of securing only the nation's second Grand Slam but Martin Johnson's side showed enough against Wales 10 days ago to suggest they will not raise the white flag at Croke Park.

"England's performance in the last match against the Welsh was well up on the week before," said Kidney. "I suppose that the other thing that concerns me is the quality of the people in the background.

"I've worked with Mike Ford before and my respect for Martin Johnson is huge. What's also important is that they've had two free weeks in the run-up to this match.

"If they made that much of an improvement in one week in between Italy and Wales, who knows what kind of improvements they've made in the past fortnight?

"That two-week preparation is a new thing for England because before they might have been playing Guinness Premiership matches in between. You can't overstate the importance of that to any team - getting proper preparation time in between matches."