Kiss relishing his Irish adventure

WHEN Declan Kidney was thinking of appointing Les Kiss as Ireland defence coach, he was immediately impressed by the attitude shown by the former Waratahs head coach.

Kiss flew in from Japan at short notice to talk to Kidney, for instance, which marked him down as a serious prospect; if the Ireland head coach wanted a character reference, he only had to consult former Australia coach Bob Dwyer, not a man to sprinkle compliments freely.

“Les works easily, in a relaxed but authoritative manner,” said Dwyer. “He has excellent man management skills and work ethic. His ability to present his thought process to players is equally excellent.

“At the same time, he is an excellent listener, a great team learner and thirsty for additional knowledge. He contributes in a frank, positive and constructive manner in the team environment of the coaching group.”

In person, Kiss is friendly, with a nice line in dry wit. “I’m a fairly simple man,” he says. “Some people might say I’m complex but the true inspirations for me, when it comes down to it, and if there are people who are an inspiration to me it’s my children and my wife. My family. That’s my grounding force, and my driving force.

“I don’t want that to sound naff. I admire a lot of things in life – I admire good art, good theatre, I love a good book – but for the real challenges in life, it’s what goes on behind closed doors, and then it’s my wife and children who inspire me. The kids are 16 and 12 and a half.”

Then he adds, deadpan: “Ask me in two years if I say the same thing.”

Kiss wasn’t a complete stranger to Ireland when he arrived first. Through his wife there’s a family connection to Frank Cummins, the former Kilkenny hurler, and Alan, Cummins’ son, who hurled for Cork, and the Australian had been over here before. In any case he’s clearly a man who sees possibilities where others might see problems.

“I came over on my own last year, my family couldn’t come over at the same time, so it gave me a chance to get my teeth into the situation, travel around and see the country.

“Now we’re living in Blackrock, the kids are in St Andrew’s school, it’s going great. I wouldn’t say there have been challenges, more opportunities. The weather doesn’t bother me, after the sun in Oz to me it’s just another experience, a novelty.”

In the day job, Kiss’s approach bears out Dwyer’s comments about contributing in a constructive way – particularly the way the 2008-9 season panned out.

“I’m not coming in to say ‘it’s my way or the highway’, the challenge is to make sure I stay true to myself and to the players – to make sure they’ll trust me as I trust them.

“Those things, you don’t know how they’re going to go but I’ve got to take my hat off to them, the way they’ve embraced and accepted me.

“Last season was an interesting journey, when you focus on different parts of it and talk to people about different things about what they thought. But one thing that struck me early on when the group got together was there was an underlying optimism – there were opportunities there, there were a lot of possibilities, but that there was also an element of reality.

“I guess that helped us understand how we could challenge ourselves. The experience base was good, the youth base was good – and a lot of the younger players had a good winning percentage, the likes of Luke Fitzgerald, Rob Kearney and Keith Earls.

“It wasn’t arrogance. It was optimism. With each game our focus allowed the momentum to build, and to see how it rolled through the Six Nations... it was unbelievable. It really hit me when we came back from Cardiff, to see the welcome we got it. It was wonderful. A great feeling.”

Now Ireland face Australia. The Wallabies had a poor Tri-Nations, but Kiss is slow to say they’re in trouble.

“People are talking about a crisis over there, but the resilience of the Australian sportsman is unbelievable. After 25 years of the Australian Institute of Sport, sport is our identity to a great degree. When the Olympics come around there’s a huge focus, for instance.

“So I wouldn’t use the word crisis. Obviously there are challenges around the edges there but I know that in their hearts they just believe they’ll do it and come through this okay. And when I say ‘come through this’ I don’t mean ‘crisis’, I mean this situation.”

Is it a case that Kiss and his colleagues are trying to bring that confidence into the Irish players, then?

“If we’re talking about Australia, that’s a confidence that’s come through really in the last 25 years, since the Institute of Sport came in.

“This country has great traditions in the GAA, for instance, that parish mentality has a lot of strong things, threads we’ve tried to weave into this level of rugby.

“In terms of generational change, I’d say this generation of Irish players has embraced the opportunity. It’s not something they’ve taken for granted. If they stay grounded and real then I think it’s a great opportunity for them.

“And that doesn’t just apply to rugby, but to all sports in Ireland.”