Kiss role shows what makes Kidney great

YOU can see the question coming a mile away …what makes Declan Kidney such a successful rugby coach?

It used to be posed domestically during his days at Munster with whom he won two Heineken Cups and a plethora of other honours.

Once he moved on to Ireland, however, the area of curiosity widened accordingly. Colleagues from the other Six Nations countries are still fascinated at his success ratio given that most had not heard a whole lot about him, largely because Kidney never played for Ireland or indeed ever threatened to do so.

But he has disproved in the most emphatic manner the contention that you needed to be an outstanding player to become an outstanding coach.

So what is it that makes Kidney so good at his job? Does he know more about the game than all the other practitioners of the coaching art? Does he have the knack of getting more out of his players better than any of his peers? Do his man management skills exceed those of his rivals?

Well, as they say, two out of three ain’t bad. Whatever about the first question, I will simply say that he’s up there with the best. On the 2nd and 3rd points, Declan merits an emphatic yes.

From his earliest days coaching at PBC through Dolphin and Munster and onward to his current job, Kidney has gotten the very best possible out a whole range of players who wouldn’t otherwise been qualified to perform on such an elevated plateau.

And when it comes to piecing together management teams capable of helping him to reach ever higher standards, there are few if any to touch him. In Kidney’s Munster days, Brian O’Brien, Jerry Holland, Niall O’Donovan, Paul McCarthy, Brian Hickey, Jim Williams, Tony McGahan and several others were part of a “Think Tank” that became the envy of Europe.

During much of that time, Eddie O’Sullivan was virtually a one-man band with Ireland. So when it came to Kidney’s time to take on the top job, he recognised the errors of others and surrounded himself with some of the shrewdest brains in the game.

Gert Smal, assistant coach of the 2007 South African World Cup winning team, was appointed forwards coach.

Alan Gaffney, renowned for his work with Leinster and Munster, became backs coach. Record breaking Bristol out-half Mark Tainton took over as kicking coach and perhaps most crucially in the light of recent events, former Australian Rugby League winger Les Kiss was handed the job of defence coach.

There was no banging of drums or blaring of trumpets as each announcement was made.

But Kidney did comment at the time of Kiss’s appointment: “We are delighted to have secured someone with Les’s experience and top level coaching credentials”.

To be honest, the name didn’t mean a lot to most Irish supporters but as we have discovered, it was another inspired decision by the head coach.

Each member of the management team enjoyed a generous share of the limelight during the march to Grand Slam glory last season but right now it’s Kiss who is capturing the headlines having masterminded Ireland’s remarkable defensive performance at Twickenham on Saturday. The statistics say that they missed only one tackle out of 99 (the search is still on for the culprit who spoiled the 100% record!) and so Kiss could hardly be blamed if he’s been wearing a broader than usual smile over the past few days.

His CV is impressive. Having been a member of the undefeated 1986 Australian Rugby League team that toured Britain and France, he made the transition to Rugby Union in 2001 when South Africa had easily the best defensive record with the least tries (11) and least points conceded.

He went on to coach the Stormers, Cats and Bulls before returning to Australia and the New South Wales Waratahs in ‘03.

Defence remained his forte with his teams invariably topping the averages and so Kidney was more than pleased when he agreed to give up his post as head coach of the Waratahs in 2008 to throw in his lot with Ireland.

Kiss lived a bachelor life in and around Dublin 4 before his family came over and before he knew it, he was celebrating with the rest of the country the magnificent victory in the Six Nations Championship.

As he said at the time: “The chance to work with Ireland and to be involved at an international level held great attraction for me. And the significance of the Grand Slam really hit me when we came home … the airport, the reception, the whole next week, to see what it meant to the Irish people blew me apart.”

There won’t be a Grand Slam this year but there’s still every prospect of a fifth Triple Crown in seven years and that’s certainly no small consolation prize. Kiss will cast a learned eye over the stats most important to him – first in the tackle completion bracket with 94% which in turn played a lead part in the 13 turnovers made in the three matches so far, second only to France on 15.

Kiss’s appointment is just another demonstration of why Kidney is one of the shrewdest individuals in the game.