Asked if there is added pressure on the Ireland side to overturn England this weekend and keep up the nation's morale, against the backdrop of the economic crisis, Kidney was measured in his response.

"If we were to say our desire to win tomorrow is greater than before we'd be lying," he said.

"Our desire to win tomorrow is in the here and now. We have to understand how fortunate we are to be in a career that we like.

"We're very conscious that we're a representative side and want to do that to the best of our ability. Pressure? Not really.

"This is good place to live and we have a great sporting public on this island. People will be behind us if they know that we've given everything we can.

"The pressure for us is to be as good as we can be tomorrow. We want to do our families and all the people around proud."

Click here for photos of the Ireland Captain's Run training session at Croke Park on Friday.