Kiss looking on bright side

IT hasn’t been the best of fortnights for Les Kiss.

Ireland’s defence coach prides himself on the national team’s watertight rearguard action. But that was blown to pieces by the All Blacks in New Plymouth, 18 months of impressive endeavour with the Ireland team left in tatters as his players missed a massive 23 tackles.

To add insult to injury, Kiss got stuck in a lift during the trip to New Zealand and then strained a muscle in his back, ruling him out of yesterday’s highly anticipated Ireland coaching staff vs Irish media football match.

Speaking publicly for the first time since that 66-28 pasting against New Zealand, Kiss admitted it has been a testing time for him.

“We’ve got a lot of pride in our defence and to let that many (tries) in is unacceptable,” he said of the nine tries Ireland shipped.

“Despite the fact we only had 14 men for that time, you still should be better than that, and 13 for a while, they’re tough periods but it’s still too leaky for our liking. When you take that up to then, we had only let 16 tries in 18 Tests and then in one hit we do that (nine tries) so it’s not nice. The Wallabies went through it when the Springboks put eight against them once, it’s not nice, and then I get locked in a lift for one and a half hours and then I do my back… so, I’ve really had a good time!”

However, the response of the Ireland players to that record defeat has heartened Kiss. “It’s an interesting dynamic because obviously I’m disappointed but you can read it in the players faces,” he explained.

“The next session is a vital one, you sit with the key people and get a bit of feedback and they were harsh on themselves, which is probably the only thing you’d want because it supports the fact that it was more about letting themselves down, letting the jersey down. They expected better of themselves and they didn’t quite get it.”

After such a miserable time across the Tasman Sea, Kiss was visibly a hell of a lot happier to be back home – he grew up just north of Brisbane on the Queensland coast. But there is no sense of divided loyalties. Kiss, who also served as a defence coach with South Africa, has returned to his homeland before as part of a management team plotting the downfall of the Wallabies.

“This is my fourth game against Australia; I was with the Springboks twice and once with the Ireland. There’s been two draws and one win, so hopefully I can keep that (clean) sheet and that side of the ledger, and on the winning side; not a draw, but a win,” said the former Queensland rugby league representative, who knows Saturday’s venue better than most.

“I’m from Queensland, so a maroon jumper is what I grew up in, in rugby league. Lang Park (its old name) or Suncorp Stadium is where I played most of my rugby so it’s good to be back home,” said the 45-year-old former Australia league international.

“It’s a fantastic stadium. I’m not sure if you’ve been to Newlands in South Africa, the atmosphere that it creates is like a big lunchbox and the noise stays in there – it’s very similar. I believe they’re around 45,000-plus tickets sold so it’s going to be fantastic.

“The Wallabies traditionally perform well here so they’ll be relishing the chance to get back on the track. It’s what I call a place where you just want to get out and play, and our guys love that type of atmosphere as well, and the type of vibe that comes with it. A Queensland crowd is a unique type of crowd, so it will be fantastic.”