MIKE Ruddock has received a ringing endorsement from Reggie Corrigan, the top Ireland prop who plays for Leinster against Newport Gwent Dragons in tomorrow night's Celtic League game at Rodney Parade.

Ruddock spent three years in Dublin as Leinster coach from 1997-2000 when he was the first coach Corrigan played under in the professional era.

He has since gone on to win 47 caps and though originally left out of the Irish team this season was recalled when Marcus Horan went sick and played in last week's breathtaking game against France.

He gives Ruddock, who quit as Wales coach in a shock move this week, a great deal of credit for his development.

"Mike was the first coach to give me a chance, he trained me very hard and I lost about two stone in weight," said Corrigan ruefully.

"He got me into the Leinster team and then I went on to play for Ireland, so I have a lot to be grateful to Mike for. I found him a very good guy, a great bloke."

Corrigan is as surprised as everyone else at Ruddock's sudden departure from his Wales post, especially after the Grand Slam triumph of last season.

"We keep in touch and I saw him when we played at Llanelli last month," he said. "I was quite surprised to hear of his resignation especially after Wales' amazing achievement.

"He had his personal reasons and I hope everything will be all right for him, he had been doing so well and everyone expected him to stay."

Corrigan doesn't expect the upheaval in the Wales camp to have any effect on their performance against Ireland at Lansdowne Road a week Sunday and he's sure skipper Gareth Thomas will take a firm hand.

"Gareth is a strong character and he will tighten everything up and bring Wales together as a unit," he said. "Wales will black everything else out and he will say 'let's go out there and play and do it for ourselves' - and they could well do that.

"A lot of stuff will be in place for them already so they should survive all right. It's bound to have an effect, but with the character they have they'll still be strong."

For Ireland it will be the start of their bid to win the Triple Crown after playing Italy and France so far in the Six Nations.

"That's our goal," he admitted. "Wales played well against Scotland and they'll be tough, but we play similar rugby and we'll certainly give it everything we've got. It could be a humdinger

"I've never been involved in a game quite so bizarre as our last game in France (Ireland trailed 43-3 at one stage but hit back to 43-31).

"We gifted them scores and though we showed character to fight back we won't be able to do that against Wales."