We'll just have to see how things go, " said Kidney yesterday. He got a bit of a bang on the leg, he's a bit of a doubt for the game. We'll have to see how he wakes up tomorrow. It didn't respond as well as we'd hoped this morning but we're just going to have to wait and see."

Any worries for you Michael?"

?No, we're fine." A brief silence. ?Sorry about that."

As you may have guessed by now, Michael Cheika was beside his Munster counterpart in the press tent stationed at the back of the West Stand car park at Lansdowne Road yesterday, but if it was trash talk you were after, you'd come to the wrong place. They'd hardly have made it as boxers. But as Cheika's side tipped the scales as marginal favourites, with Kidney's outfit every so slightly behind (mercifully both of them managed to resist stripping down to their boxershorts), there were no insults traded, no 'I am the greatest' declarations, just platitudes and brown-nosing of the highest order. Everybody was on their best behaviour.

It was always a ridiculous idea, a press conference between coaches who've been talking the other up all week.

No, really, these guys have probably put as much effort into not insulting the opposition this week as they've actually put into their game plan.

Just to ensure there's nothing to pin up on the wall, nothing to get the blood pumping in the other dressing room. As if anybody needed any incentive.

The most interesting moment was when Kidney was asked whether his knowledge of the Leinster dressing room from last season would help his side today. We got a typical Kidney response to keep us quiet. ?I don't know really, " said the Munster coach, in a style we've all become used to. ?Once you change one person in a team the whole chemistry of a team can change substantially. I'm not so sure there's any real inside information that I have gained from knowing the boys at underage or 'A' level.

?When you're playing against good players you never second guess what they can do, that never works really because that's what good players do, they do what's right at the time but if everybody knew what the right thing was at the time, everybody would be able to counteract. I don't think it gives me much of an insight at all really."

Unfortunately Michael Cheika was asked to latch on to the theme. ?I think what Declan says is pretty true, " said the coach. ?Everybody talks about the chess and how everybody knows each other so well. And then you go, maybe because they know us so well we might try something different, but then maybe because they think we're going to try something different, we'll do the same thing. It's so self-defeating, you don't really know. At the end of the day you just go out and play what's in front of you. No matter how well you know a player only one person knows what he's going to do on the day and that's the player himself."

And the hype, oh the hype.

He's playing for both sides this afternoon, apparently, and while the Leinster coach dismissed his influence yesterday, Kidney decided to embrace him. ?It's hard to keep away from the hype where we're from. The milkman knows about you, it's just part and parcel of it, " said the man from Cork who still doesn't know where his corner shop is. ?All you can try and do is feed of it and use it in a positive way. It's something you can't avoid and you have to become accustomed to it and live through it."

Final question? There were none. We've all heard enough.

Mister Cheika and Mister Kidney shook hands and wished each other the very best of luck. The talking over, let the game begin.