Kidney’s out to regenerate Exiles
Former Ireland coach is perfect fit to revive Exiles
ACOUPLE of hours after leading Ireland to the Grand Slam in 2009, Declan Kidney was asked what would come next. He had inspired the Munster European legend. Then he had answered Ireland’s call and revived a dispirited team beyond all expectations.
What was the maestro planning for his next flourish? ‘If I could get my handicap under 30 I’d be alright,’ he said with that distinctive smile, eyes narrowed in amusement.
It was typical of Kidney, a man blessed with the vision to see sport in context, to appreciate its absurdities and its glories. His emotions have always, publicly, stayed within a narrow range.
That tendency to remain measured was important four years, nearly to the week, after that Grand Slam.
He was speaking for the last time as Ireland head coach. He might have suspected as much, after watching his team lose to Italy in the final game of the 2013 Six Nations.
It had been a turbulent tournament for the side, scarred by injuries but confused, too, by erratic decision-making by Kidney.
Ireland finished fifth, their worst performance in the championship in 15 years, and when he spoke after the Italian defeat, the concentration was on his future.
‘I know what I can bring to it,’ he said. ‘I know what I brought to it over the years. I know that I’ve been in holes before like this and I know how to get out of them. But I think now is the time to sit back and reflect and let’s take a look at things.’
Just over two weeks later, he was gone, but to the very end, Kidney was considered and dignified.
After London Irish walloped Harlequins in England’s Premiership last weekend, recording their third win of the season after 19 matches, Kidney spoke as their new technical director.
If much has changed in rugby in the five years since he coached professionally, one constant is his temperament.
‘The boys were working extremely hard before Les (Kiss) and I arrived at the club and today a few passes stuck, and we now have a massive task against Exeter, which we’re all looking for-ward to.’
It was a splendid example of the public Kidney: safe, deferential to the efforts of others, and obscuring what he must really think.
A resounding 35-5 victory away to Quins was, in the context of the London Irish season, sensational. Harlequins announced in its aftermath that John Kingston, their director of rugby, would leave at the end of the season.
That was not down to one result, but losing to London Irish, let alone by 30 points, is not an outcome ambitious clubs are willing to accept — not given the state of the Exiles this season.
Their fate in the immediate term looks bleak: nine points behind Worcester, with a match against reigning champions Exeter on Sunday and two matches after that to try and save themselves, at home to Saracens and away to Bath.
Relegation seems inevitable, but then Kidney and Kiss, his assistant with the national team, were not hired with the short-term in mind.
London Irish need reviving, on the field and off it, and in persuading Kidney and Kiss to take charge of the team, the club have renewed a connection to its Irish history. But it has also landed two highcalibre leaders.
Their delight is obvious, and the eagerness of Kiss to rejoin the fray after his departure from Ulster is also understandable.
It is the presence of Kidney that intrigues.
He is 58 years of age now, and had been working as head of sport in University College Cork since 2013.
From the outside, he looked a man reconciled to a new part of his life. He is a very private individual and there are few who could claim to know him well.
Nonetheless, rumours began to emerge in recent months suggesting he was keen to work in rugby again.
It is easy to underestimate his passion precisely because of that even temper of his. His passion for it is not on public display in the manner of someone like Pep Guardiola or even Joe Schmidt.
The intensity of his successor as Ireland chief is clear, but those who have played under Kidney and who became acquainted with his coaching work attest to a fierce devotion to the sport.
A man ten years shy of retirement age moving to another country is common in soccer but not so much in rugby. However, the opportunity to return to the sport full-time was one he couldn’t resist.
His family circumstances altered, too, following the death of his wife in 2016.
‘I feel blessed that London Irish have given me this opportunity and I’m really looking forward to the challenge,’ he said on getting the job.
Kidney and Kiss have signed three-year contracts, and there are grand ambitions within the club. Next season will be concerned with promotion, but before then recruitment is likely to take up a great deal of Kidney’s time.
There has been inevitable speculation about the duo trying to recruit Irish players. Test players, even those on the fringes of national representation, will not trade the possibility of working under Schmidt 18 months out from a World Cup, for the drudgery of England’s second tier.
Those who cannot win a place in national squads, of whom there are plenty, could be tempted, however.
Kidney remains a potent name in Irish rugby, and even without a splurge on players from here he will help to strengthen the identity of the club. That is now most relevant as a commercial exercise.
There is big money in English rugby, and if London Irish can create a distinctive identity, it creates interesting opportunities.
At the heart of the enterprise is a man never associated with the word dynamic. But Declan Kidney, one of the giants of Irish rugby, is back in the game.
Relegation would seem to be inevitable, but Kidney was not hired with the short term in mind