Kidwell paints a different picture
Back coaching in Christchurch for the first time in five years, mural man David Kidwell revels in his journey from a Hornby Panther to an Argentina Puma. Tony Smith reports.
There may be a massive mural depicting Pumas rugby team defence coach David Kidwell in Christchurch, but the former NRL star says he’ll be Argentinian against the All Blacks tonight.
Street artist Mr G – Graham Hoete – painted the commissioned Kidwell fresco on the side of a Lichfield St building in 2017 when Kidwell coached the Kiwis against Scotland in a Rugby League World Cup match at the Addington venue where the All Blacks will host the Pumas.
Back in tautahi this week, Kidwell has copped good-natured ribbing from his head coach Michael Cheika about his etched image in a part of town that could be called Kiddy Corner.
‘‘There’s not many places you go to play footy where there is a huge mural of one of your coaches up on the wall, right?,’’ Cheika said.
‘‘Dave has been making us drive past every day on the way to training, so it’s making us five minutes later to training every day.’’
Kidwell enjoys the banter and was happy to pose in his bright blue Puma-embossed tracksuit before the king-sized mural despite a biting cold wind on Thursday.
‘‘It feels awesome to be back in Christchurch, it’s my home town, I spent 18 years of my life here.’’
His wife and kids have come over from Sydney and he’s enjoyed catching up with whānau and old friends.
‘‘I haven’t seen my sister for three years because of Covid or my best mates and my wife’s family.’
But it’s also business time for a coach who left Christchurch in 1997 to play rugby league for the shortlived Adelaide Rams.
So how will Kidwell, who led many a marrow-chilling Kiwis haka in a 25-test career, feel when the Pumas face the All Blacks’ rendition tonight?
‘‘I might want to bust it out myself,’’ he jokes. ‘‘Obviously I’m proud of my heritage and the haka is something special in our culture. But in world sport, it’s business, a lot of coaches from different codes coach against their country. I’m a Kiwi, Māori boy at heart, and that’s where my heart will always be, but here, with Argentina, on Saturday night I will be Argentinian.’’
The one-time Hornby Panther has clearly switched codes to become a proud Puma.
Kidwell was happily working a fifth season as a Parramatta Eels NRL assistant coach until Cheika came knocking in May.
The pair didn’t know each other ‘‘even though we are neighbours [in Sydney], but I mentioned to a mutual friend that I had done some work with Japan for Jamie Joseph pre-the World Cup and loved it’’, Kidwell said. ‘‘He said ‘Michael Cheika might be interested in someone like yourself’. Next day Cheik gave me a ring, we had a coffee and the rest is history.’’
Kidwell liked the challenge presented, but the Eels were in midseason. Cheika, however, had ‘‘a plan right through to the World Cup’’and insisted: ‘‘We need you now’’.
After reflecting that ‘‘the NRL will always be there to go back to’’, Kidwell decided to ‘‘take a leap of faith’’.
‘‘I thought it’s an opportunity that possibly wouldn’t be here again.’’
The big attraction was the chance ‘‘to coach at the World Cup’’ in France next year.
Switching codes has been ‘‘a steep learning curve – I don’t know if it gets any steeper’’, but Kidwell has found it ‘‘stimulating’’ and has already helped Argentina to a series win over Scotland and a split Rugby Championship rubber with Australia.
‘‘I’ve been 27 years in the NRL, I played for 14 years and coached for 13. Not that I was ungrateful, but coaching in a new code in a new language, you really have to pull out all the experience you’ve had in those areas to bring here to Argentina.’’
It had been 30 years since Kidwell had played rugby union for Suburbs and Linwood High School. He made the Canterbury under-16 team, a year after becoming a Schoolboy Kiwi and ‘‘loved’’ his stint in the 15-man code.
But faced with a choice he went back to his rugby league roots. ‘‘I’d played it all my life and wanted to go to the Winfield Cup and and become a Kiwi.
‘‘If I had my time over? If the
Crusaders had pathways then I probably would have switched to rugby ... but they were just starting up.’’
Kidwell says he’s grateful to Cheika, the rest of the coaching staff and the Pumas players ‘‘for being really patient with me’’ in his transition.
It’s been easy working with Cheika, he says. The former Wallabies coach has a healthy respect for rugby league defensive play, has worked with Roosters coach Trent Robinson and is to coach Lebanon at this year’s Rugby League World Cup.
He’s encouraged Kidwell to offer ‘‘a fresh set of eyes. I ask a lot of questions ... I’m like a sponge, I like to soak it all up.’’
Kidwell feels he and Cheika have the same mindset. The league convert’s is: ‘‘We want to win the World Cup’’.
Kidwell makes no secret of his ambition to be a head coach again in either code.
His time with the Kiwis ended in disappointment with a quarterfinal exit to Fiji at the 2017 Rugby League World Cup, but Kidwell’s convinced he’s ‘‘a way better coach now’’.
‘‘It was tough, but if I hadn’t gone through that I might not be in this position now.’’
He said the Kiwis experience made him appreciate ‘‘it’s all about relationships with the players and how you build that connection’’, a lesson he took into his three-year unbeaten stint as Māori All Stars head coach.
Kidwell had got the nod from Cheika and the Argentine Rugby Union to continue coaching the Māori side, but he said ‘‘basically [the Māori Rugby League] didn’t want me to coach’’.
‘‘It’s obviously disappointing because the last three years I’ve been creating something there with the All Stars, and I’d been a big advocate of bring the game back to New Zealand.’’
The Māori All Stars will play Australia’s Indigenous All Stars in Rotorua next February. ‘‘But unfortunately I won’t be the coach,’’ said Kidwell, who felt ‘‘disappointed with the process’’.
Kidwell built a reputation in over 200 NRL games for smoking players in a tackle – witness his massive hit on Willie Mason in 2006
Argentina coach Michael Cheika, left, on the mural of David Kidwell, right
after the Kangaroos enforcer had mouthed off at the haka.
It’s a mindset he will clearly impart to his new charges, but Kidwell said there are some clear differences, along with similarities, between defensive patterns in both rugby codes.
‘‘We tackle high in rugby league and then we have a man around the legs. In rugby union it’s more the chop tackle, about getting [the ball carrier] to the ground to set up the jackal or breakdown turnover.’’
But both sports had an emphasis on ‘‘slowing the ruck down’’ because with quick ball ‘‘you can blow teams way through the middle’’ and give the backs more space. Kidwell says all coaching is ‘‘about building relationships’’ and he has enjoyed getting to know the Pumas.
Captain Julian Montoya plays for English champions Leicester where Leeds Rhinos great Kevin Sinfield preaches defensive systems similar to Kidwell’s.
As for speaking Spanish, Kidwell’s taking regular lessons and enjoys grasping for new words, but he’s ‘‘told [the players] this time next year for the World Cup, I will be more fluent’’. ‘‘I’m lucky that they have English as their second language ... but actions are a good language to use.’’
Kidwell is enjoying talking to the Pumas players and staff about his hometown and is pleased to see the rebuilt Christchurch ‘‘vibing up’’ after the earthquakes.
Going back to Orangetheory Stadium, which he knew as ‘‘Addington Show Grounds’’, the city’s traditional rugby league home, ‘‘will bring back a lot of memories’’.
‘‘I won a few [club rugby league] grand finals there. I played for Hornby and the rivalry with Halswell back then was massive. The ground always seemed packed.’’ This time, he’s in the ‘‘enemy’’ corner, plotting a way to stop the All Blacks’ attack spoiling his happy homecoming.
‘‘Dave has been making us drive past every day on the way to training.’’