Kidney: We will learn from this experience

FIVE straight defeats.

It’s unlikely Declan Kidney has ever endured such a barren run in his coaching career to this point.

In all of his roles at schools, club, provincial and various international grades, such sustained failure has been alien to Ireland’s head coach. Saturday night’s surrender to the Wallabies in Brisbane extended Ireland’s losing run to three months. As the closing match of the tour, it also ensured that by the time South Africa pitch up to raise the curtain on the gleaming new Lansdowne Road in November, Ireland will have gone a full eight months without tasting triumph.

After his side slipped up to Scotland at Croke Park in the closing match of the Six Nations, Kidney said it was extra galling because it was the final game of that campaign. Now he has to carry the bitter taste of Saturday’s defeat for an even more prolonged period. It’s not something he’s looking forward to.

“No, you’re right, that’s why you want to win the last one. Win tonight and you’ve a totally different perspective on the tour,” said the Ireland coach after seeing his jaded side come up short against Australia at Suncorp Stadium. That’s what goes with it. These are final matches. The final game in the series is always the one that carries you through to the next one. And it’s another handy one, South Africa in November.

“But I’ve said it before, the more often we play these teams, the better we’ll get once we stay strong in our belief in what we do.”

Bringing the curtain down on his first southern hemisphere tour as national coach, the 22-15 defeat was far from a disaster. In light of how the three-week trek started – with that dark night in New Plymouth against the All Blacks – coming up just short in the other two games represents something of an unexpected achievement.

Forever looking for the positives, Kidney pointed to the game time racked up by a host of his second, and in many cases third-string players as one of the real positives to take from the tour.

“You can’t buy experience, so we gave experience to a number of fellas tonight and the fact that we’re disappointed, does that say something?” added Kidney, who handed out five new caps over the tour. “The fact it was seven-point game... I’m as disappointed as anyone that we didn’t get the win but you have to build up experience too and we have some now. When that experience will kick in I’m not sure but we had to build it. Five of the lads that started tonight played in the Churchill cup final last year and they have comes to within seven points of Australia, so they will be the better for the experience.”

“It’s [about] getting little things right, different combinations so I’m hoping that will focus the mind. “So, when we see some small little thing going wrong at training and pick it up, they will understand the reason for it, they’ll know what catches you in games like this.”