Painful Kidney transplant gave rival provinces new lease of life
NOTHING became the merger between Declan Kidney and Leinster than its ending.
You could also paraphrase the Bard and say that nothing became the marriage like its beginning.
Indeed, the entire episode seems so oddly surreal that one wonders did it ever really happen at all?
And there are times when you also wonder what might have happened had it not?
Would Munster still have grabbed a Heineken Cup march on their fierce provincial rivals? Would there have been a unifying Grand Slam assault in 2009? Would we have ever heard of Joe Schmidt?
In 2004, Leinster – or Leinster Lions as they called themselves then – were, from top to bottom, pretty shambolic.
They changed clothes sitting in the boots of their cars; their Donnybrook stadium was a deplorable dust-bowl. In the 2004/’05 season, coach Gary Ella was being undermined by half the squad; their star player – one Felipe Contepomi – wasn’t registered for Europe because of an admin cock-up. Those who were vested with some interest in their plight were not shy of an opinion.
“A few of these guys have their head up their a**e. They’re on a hundred grand and they don’t want to play in the Celtic League.” This was only one such frustrated voice of Leinster.
Derived
That it derived – anonymously – from the dressing-room and was splashed all over a newspaper said a lot.
This was the mess Kidney walked into during the summer of 2004. That he had walked away from another mess to get there arguably never helped either party to get the best out of each other.
Newport Gwent Dragons had been delighted when Kidney penned a two-year deal with them in May of 2004.
As he always admits, Kidney was a home bird. To allay Kidney’s concerns, Dragons chief Tony Brown said he would allow him to commute on a weekly basis in order to spend some time at home.
The Welsh side would finish their season with a high-scoring loss against Leinster in Lansdowne Road – watched by 2,000 people! – but Scarlets pipped them to the Celtic League title by beating Ulster.
Little did they know that Leinster would not only thieve their title hopes but their new coach, too. Ella was dumped and eyes turned to Kidney. His eyes turned, too.
Understandably, the Dragons were breathing fire.
“If they knew young Ella wasn’t up to it then why didn’t they bother saying something to Declan before now,” their millionaire benefactor bemoaned of Leinster’s “complete a***holes”.
“They seem to have a problem making up their minds. As I understand it, it’s three months before their committee gets around to making a bloody decision on anything.”
Despite nominal support from some of his squad, within days of the season ending, Ella was out the door. It had barely hit him on the backside before Kidney walked through it. It would prove to be an expensive exercise.
For, even as they were leaving Dublin following the final game of the season, the mutterings amongst the Welsh were growing increasingly fraught.
“There is no point in keeping someone if he doesn’t want to be with you,” said chairman Martyn Hazell, “and do contracts mean anything nowadays?”
Andy Marinos, the Australian chief executive, was a tad more bullish; in his eyes, a contract was worth the paper it was written on.
When it wasn’t, somebody would have to pay. And ultimately that would be Leinster.
They ponied up anywhere between €50,000-€100,000, the price to pay for believing that this time, things could be different.
Europe started well and ended badly – a microcosm of Kidney’s season. “We had six great Heineken Cup days and one bad one,” he later said. He was referring to a blemish-free pool run but then a quarter-final defeat at home to Leicester. By then, he had already told senior players, including captain Reggie Corrigan, that he had decided to return to Munster.
“While I could understand his reasons for leaving, at the time I was absolutely fuming,” recalled Corrigan.
There was a deeply personal reason for this latest professional decision.
Kidney’s mother was seriously ill and he wanted to return to be closer to her in Cork.
Represented
This time, Munster had to pay, about €50,000, to repatriate their former coach. Two Heineken Cup wins in three years represented good value for money but it had always seemed like an odd fit.
“I wonder whether Deccie ever fully bought into being Leinster coach, or they into him?” mused Peter Stringer, “an established Munster man who had coached us for years.
“Of course I had doubts,” Kidney later said. “I didn’t like letting people down.”
Ultimately, he achieved success with Munster, then Ireland too, while the appointment of Michael Cheika belatedly allowed Leinster to reach their Holy Grail, too.
Irish rugby – and its two leading provinces – got there in the end. But only after the most unusual of seasons.