Gracious Kidney gives growler Cowen a lesson in real leadership

THINKING it might be a bit facetious and trite — as well as a touch obvious — I wasn’t going to draw comparisons between our rugby team and our Government, or the former’s head coach Declan Kidney and Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

Sport and politics are so obviously different — and clearly running the country is far more important, no matter how seriously we take our sport — that such comparisons could be odious. However, the more I thought of the reasons why I shouldn’t, the more I thought there might be some limited benefit in drawing analogies between the respective management of resources. So here goes.

1. Honesty is the main attribute of the Irish rugby team. After the grand slam triumph last Saturday, Paul O’Connell chastised himself for a missed tackle and a knock-on in what otherwise would have been a perfect personal performance. He didn’t laud himself for what he did right, but lavished praise on others instead.

Declan Kidney not only deflected attention from himself afterwards but had the good grace to thank his predecessor Eddie O’Sullivan for his work.

Contrast this with the behaviour of our politicians. They are always seeking to blame someone else and take credit for themselves. Rather than admit they blew the proceeds of the boom, successive ministers have insisted our problems are the result of international events. While it is true we are at the mercy of an international disaster, it is also true we were not only ill prepared for what has happened but our Government wilfully made things worse.

Its insanely optimistic financial behaviour and lax application of standards to private sector regulation — particularly of the banks — has created our own peculiar form of disaster. Fianna Fáil, for example, boasts the importance of our 12.5% corporation tax rate as if it invented it, whereas it was a Labour minister, Ruairi Quinn, who negotiated it with the EU. Credit for all achievements is hogged, whereas criticism of rivals is childishly dished out to deflect attention from their own failings.

2. Former Irish coach Warren Gatland appalled players and fans with his attempts to whip up conflict between the teams with his comments about the Welsh disliking the Irish and wanting to beat them more than anyone else. He was clearly trying to incite and distract the Irish, just like opposition politicians like to needle those who are in power and as Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore try to do to Brian Cowen in the Dáil each week.

Can you imagine Cowen responding to Kenny or Gilmore with the dignity Kidney employed to dispense with Gatland’s barbs?

Kidney refused to be riled and didn’t lose focus. Cowen regularly shouts and snarls when under pressure and fails to think clearly as a result. Watching the regular sparking of his short fuse undermines our confidence in him. Kidney knows actions speak louder than words: the Irish team answered Gatland on the pitch.

3. Kidney picked his best player as captain, not his friend. The hug he and O’Connell shared after the match showed the deep affection based on mutual respect that has grown over the years. But despite huge pressure to do so, Kidney did not make O’Connell his captain.

Brian O’Driscoll was O’Sullivan’s captain and many believed his game would be improved by relieving him of the burden. Instead, Kidney decided to stick with O’Driscoll, his best back, as captain possibly for fear that putting O’Connell into the job would smack of Munster favouritism. O’Driscoll responded with the greatest display of on-field leadership — over five games — ever given by an Irish rugby captain.

Contrast Kidney’s choice with Cowen’s decision to make Mary Coughlan his Tánaiste. Kidney went with experience and excellence — Cowen gave the most important job in cabinet, as his deputy, to his friend.

4. Kidney didn’t have any Connacht players in his squad for the sake of it. Gavin Duffy had gone to the World Cup and played from the bench but didn’t come close to Kidney’s match 22. The Ulster player Stephen Ferris was in the team on merit, and while Rory Best is arguably as good a hooker as Jerry Flannery, he didn’t get into the side ahead of him to keep the Ulster lobby happy. The best team and squad was picked irrespective of where they came from.

Contrast that to Cowen’s cabinet, with its deliberate geographic spread of members, designed not to get the best talents available to the Government but with a view to keep regional interests happy.

5. Few enough people noticed the absence of Malcolm O’Kelly from the Irish bench last weekend. He was dropped for being late for a team meeting because of over-sleeping, having been warned previously about this. This showed the ruthlessness of Kidney in dealing with somebody who didn’t live up to the required standards of preparation, even if he was still good enough to be on the bench as cover for O’Connell and Donnacha O’Callaghan. Cowen did get rid of chief whip Tom Kitt but he could have gone much further. There are plenty of ministers who give the impression of dozing or going missing in action. Their lack of passion and unwillingness to take any initiatives at this most difficult time, when they should be fighting publicly to effect changes in their departments to provide better value for money, is a shameful cop-out.

6. The laws of rugby allow for a starting 15 and seven subs. Seven is more than enough to cover every position in the team (although there is an argument for allowing an extra prop). Our cabinet team has 20 juniors supporting it. It is a nonsense and Cowen has done himself no favours by refusing to reduce this expensive and often redundant complement.

7. Kidney has surrounded himself with the best support possible, not being afraid to give significant roles in coaching to other people and being confident enough to know he can’t do it all himself.

On taking over as Taoiseach, Cowen downgraded the importance of many advisers, believing politicians to be paramount, having the democratic mandate given to them by the electorate. That is fair enough, but only to a point. The Government is made up of many people with little or no real experience of life in the private sector. There are signs that it is looking for more outside help — with the likes of economist Alan Ahearne seconded to Brian Lenihan and another economist, Colm McCarthy, overseeing An Bord Snip. But the real test is whether Cowen and his colleagues use these people or ignore them.

Much has been made of the Irish rugby team lifting the morale of the nation — and boxer Bernard Dunne too, it must be acknowledged. But perhaps the real message is one that Cowen does not want to acknowledge. The Irish rugby team had to change the man at the top because it was tumbling at speed from from a position of some success. As Eddie O’Sullivan admitted to me in a very gracious interview last Monday in which he returned the compliments Kidney had paid to him, the time had come for him to give somebody else a go.

Cowen could argue of course that he has taken over from Bertie Ahern just as Kidney did from O’Sullivan. The difference of course is that Kidney has hit the ground running by doing things that Cowen, in a political setting, seems unwilling or unable to do.

The Last Word with Matt Cooper is broadcast on 100-102 Today FM, Monday to Friday, 4.30pm to 7pm.