Rugby News: Declan Kidney officially began his tenure as Leinster coach yesterday although, typically, the former Munster coach hasn't taken long to settle into his new Anglesea Road office. Yesterday he unveiled a strikingly experienced new Leinster coaching ticket.

In addition to Roly Meates, the one link with Leinster's previous regime(s), and Bobby Byrne, who had been enlisted some months ago, Kidney introduced another former Irish coach, Gerry Murphy, as his third assistant coach.

Furthermore, the one-time Greystones, Wanderers, Leinster and Irish inside centre Paul McNaughton was confirmed as the province's new manager in succession to Ken Ging.

"A lot of Leinster fellas there," Kidney quipped, at the expense of his own Munster background, but he was also making a salient point about the priorities he attached to his new coaching team.

"It wasn't just a case of them jumping on board," he said of the lengthy consultations with all of them. "I think they all have Leinster at heart and I think that is a great starting base. Then if you add in the amount of experience they all have in the game, and the different areas where their experience comes from, once again I think I'm very fortunate to have them helping me to help the players reach their full potential."

Murphy, who had been teaching in Terenure, admitted he was "flabbergasted to be here", and reckoned himself and Meates are "part of a complex economic plan by the Leinster Branch because both of us are eligible for our bus passes".

Aside from vastly improved fitness levels and organisation since he was at the Irish helm from 1992 to 1995, Murphy commented: "I'm not sure the game has changed all that much." Being on "the outside" lately he sees perhaps as an advantage, along with his experience, and citing his and Byrne's time with Terenure, he joked: "If you can do that you can coach anybody."

Byrne, a former tighthead prop who will take a career break from teaching geography at Gonzaga, has also coached UCD, the Irish students, Leinster schools and, since 1999, the Irish schools, and the 42-year-old admitted that he only needed a couple of minutes to decide. "It's a fantastic opportunity for me and as a Leinster man I'm very proud and honoured to be involved."

McNaughton, a banker who has recently freed up time by assuming several consultancies, expects his role to be "very much a footballing role rather than an administrative role", ranging from overseeing the provincialised academy to helping organise the make-up of Leinster squads in future years.

Kidney confirmed that in addition to the newly acquired Guy Easterby, two contracts remain to be filled and hinted that "the right candidates" might be Irish-qualified acquisitions from the Southern Hemisphere.

The deadline for Heineken European Cup registration is September 30th, while the Celtic League is slightly more flexible.

Invariably, it was put to him that Leinster's multi-talented squad had somewhat underachieved in recent years, most specifically last season.

"I think that's a word that has been bandied about alright but who is anybody to say what anybody else does with their lives? Sometimes in this country we give teams different tags, (but) I haven't seen any players not try their best. And once every player tries their best that's all you can ask of them. They're a very good group to work with and that's what I'm looking forward to."

Reggie Corrigan was named captain again, with Keith Gleeson, Leo Cullen, Brian O'Driscoll and Shane Jennings his vice-captains.

Leinster's first warm-up match will be against Worcester at Castle Avenue on August 20th, before travelling to England for games against Coventry and Worcester on August 26th and 28th. They begin their Celtic League campaign against Cardiff at Donnybrook on Sunday, September 5th (kick-off 5.15).

Leinster resumed pre-season training on June 21st, two days after Ireland's second Test defeat in Cape Town, while those involved in that tour returned to training four weeks later. As part of their new 10-week pre-season, those frontline players won't be available en bloc until Leinster's fifth Celtic League game on October 1st, ironically against the Celtic Dragons, from whom Leinster prised Kidney.

Kidney also rejected the notion that there had been some initiative from the IRFU that the frontline players would be spared from away Celtic League games. Nonetheless, with national training camps and an eight-week Six Nations campaign, the internationals will be available for about half of Leinster's 20 Celtic League games.

Of the walking wounded, Gordon D'Arcy isn't expected to be playing again until around the end of September, while Denis Hickie and Keith Gleeson are progressing well.

Felipe Contepomi only had a collar removed on Monday following the neck injury he sustained for the Pumas against Wales seven weeks ago. He will undergo a further X-ray in the next few weeks, "and it is only then when we will know the full extent of his injury," admitted Kidney.

Jason Cowman returns as fitness coach in place of Aidan O'Connell; Conor Hanratty has been enrolled as a new commercial manager while Peter Breen is the new PRO.

Leinster will relodge their application to redevelop Donnybrook on August 10th, according to Leinster's chief executive Mick Dawson.

He said: "There's been a very detailed and expensive process to get the planning application to where it is at the moment and we're expecting an answer by the end of October on the stadium plans."

Leinster have also agreed new three-year and four-year deals with main sponsor Bank of Scotland and kit suppliers Canterbury.

A new gym exclusively for Leinster's use has been installed at the David Lloyd Fitness Centre in Riverview, and there are plans to install a shop run by Active Sports at Donnybrook. Leinster have formally deleted "Lions" from their name, and henceforth wish to be known as Leinster Rugby.

London Irish have confirmed that the club will bring its full 31-man squad here for a two-match tour against Munster and Connacht later this month.

Amongst the squad's dozen internationals are new signings Mike Catt (England), Peter Poulos (Samoa), Robbie Russell (Scotland) and Scott Staniforth (Australia).

London Irish will play Munster on Tuesday, August 17th, at Thomond Park (7 p.m.) and Connacht at the Sportsground on Friday, August 20th (6.30 p.m.).