Kidney: loss extremely disappointing

NINETY SEVEN days and 320 minutes of international rugby have passed since Declan Kidney last tasted a victory as Ireland coach.

It’s a run that might have ended here in New Zealand yesterday had Ireland been able to hold on to a mightily hard-fought lead over the New Zealand Maori in Rotorua.

Instead, a late slip cost them dear and Ireland will head for Australia without anything tangible to show for their considerable effort here yesterday. Defeat, while now an unwelcome but familiar feeling, doesn’t get any easier for the man at the helm.

“We play to win so it is extremely disappointing. I’m disappointed for the players because they put in a great effort,” Kidney said of his inexperienced side who went down 31-28.

“After the first 15 minutes we worked our way back into it, weren’t going too bad, up by a few points but then we didn’t close out the game. Whether that’s a bit of inexperience maybe, I don’t know.”

The improvement from last weekend’s mauling by Richie McCaw et al was marked but in the minutes after the final whistle, Kidney still couldn’t bring himself to ignore the scoreboard.

“Last week was a tonking, you feel extraordinary after something like that. But this week is disappointing too, I wouldn’t say as disappointing but disappointing in a big way.

“We made all those changes, we believed in fellas to come through and after 15 minutes we learned to adjust to the way that game was being played. There’s a lot of three-second ruck ball and you have to decide do you keep going left and right or do you play up the guts. We’ll learn things out of the tour from that but for now it’s just disappointing.”

Of the new faces, Kidney had special mention for the back row, where Chris Henry, Niall Ronan and rookie Rhys Ruddock were immense. But he conceded another major improvement will be necessary if Ireland are to avoid a fifth straight loss, with the Wallabies waiting in Brisbane.

“All the different areas that we got better tonight have to improve again. Little things in defence have to improve. But a lot of things in attack too put the defence under pressure. We got turned over a few times when we went for the half-break or the offload.”

Paddy Wallace, one of Ireland’s outstanding performers on the night, lamented Ireland’s inability to maintain their superiority to the end. But he did feel the second string had gone some way to lifting the mood of last week.

“It was disappointing to lose, there’s no hiding from that,” said the centre. “It was the dirties’ (dirt-trackers) job to try and get the show back on the road again. Unfortunately, we came up short in terms of getting the overall victory, but I think the spirit we showed probably lifted the whole squad, and will take us over to Brisbane in better spirits.”