Bradley in interim Ireland role

Michael Bradley and Joe Miles team up for trip Down Under

Connacht coach Michael Bradley will be in charge of Ireland's tour to New Zealand and Australia in June and against the Barbarians on 27 May.

With new Ireland head coach Declan Kidney involved with Munster's Heineken Cup preparations, Bradley takes over in a temeporary capacity.

Niall O'Donovan is forwards coach with Joe Miles as manager and Graeme Steadman continuing as defence coach.

Squads for the Barbarians game and the summer tour will be named on Friday.

Bradley will also double up as backs coach. A former Ireland and Munster scrum-half, he and Miles were due to continue their partnership with the Ireland A Churchill Cup campaign.

It is now expected that former Ulster assistant coach Allen Clarke will take over the helm from Bradley for the North America trip from 7-21 June.

The senior squad leave Ireland a week after the Heineken Cup final and face New Zealand in Wellington on 7 June and Australia in Melbourne at week later.

The 45-year-old Bradley was capped 40 times for Ireland and twice played on Triple Crown-winning sides. He has been director of rugby at Connacht for three years.

O'Donovan had a six-year spell as Eddie O'Sullivan's assistant while Miles, a senior manager at Bombardier Aerospace in Belfast, is a former Ireland B winger and chairman of the old selection panel in the 1990s.

The previous senior team manager, Gerard Carmody has moved to the position of IRFU Team Services Manager but will remain with the squad for this tour to manage all team logistics.