Kiss ready to provide Irish steel

LES KISS will be a very happy man if he enjoys as fruitful a start with Ireland as he did with South Africa seven years ago. So too will Irish coaching director Declan Kidney.

Recruited from his native Australia, Kiss ticked all the right boxes in his tenure as defence coach with the Springboks in that 2001 Tri Nations Championship.

The Wallabies took the title but the Springboks had a share of the glory by having the best defensive record, conceding the least number of tries and points. Kiss couldn’t make them champions, but he helped make them very hard to beat.