Kiss on high as pieces fall into place

Although Ireland’s rugby management team dare not look too far ahead, things appear to be settling nicely into place in advance of the 2015 World Cup in England.

Joe Schmidt’s team are Six Nations champions, the second string are poised to win the IRB Nations Cup and Mike Ruddock’s youngsters have broken the mould by reaching the Junior World Cup last four for the first time.

There is an air of great enthusiasm in the Irish camps right now and Schmidt’s right-hand man Les Kiss endorsed that view in Romania this week as he watched Emerging Ireland impressively dispatch Uruguay 51-3.

He dismissed criticism of Ireland’s facile victory on day one over Russia, suggesting the result was not an accurate reflection of the state of play within the international rugby community.

“I know it was a massive victory first day out against Russia but they are not a poor rugby nation, they’ve got some rugby in them,” he said. “I think we got them on a good day and they were a bit below par. The challenge is to finish off the tournament to make sure we continue to meet our standards and not to drop them.”

In praising the coaching staff of Dan McFarland and Neil Doak and the performances in every facet of touring from the players, he warned them to expect a tough test against Romania in the chase for this IRB trophy on Sunday, following those two big victories.

“You could think that these guys are going to romp it in but we know this game is not like that. You look at some recent results, take Australia who smashed France by seven tries in one Test and then the next game is only 6-0.

“Things can change quickly in a week and sometimes the reason it changes is wrapped around attitude and keeping your mind on the job, making sure you do the basics well. So that’s now the challenge for these guys to make sure they stay on top of what they can do.

“The big thing about participation here is we want there to have a mindset amongst all the teams that represent Ireland that there is a bigger picture for them, for them to realise the best they do on a daily basis serves Irish rugby and their own needs.

“Our challenge is to provide the vehicle and also the coaching and management around it is as well, so these trips are about how the coaches and management go also. There is a whole big picture here that’s important and integrating it all is part of the plan.

“Joe is big on this. We don’t set on huge pictures in the distance. We know there is somewhere we want to go but our big focus is on the things that are in front of us. That’s why I’m here, that’s why Joe is over with the 20s. With the resources we have in Ireland means it’s important to have a handle on all of it.”

So, even though Kiss insisted it is a work in progress for Ireland, he acknowledged it has been a decent season and the coaching team will take encouraging signs into the coming months.

“For the senior side to go to Argentina and come back with two Test wins is obviously very pleasing, albeit as Joe has said we would have liked better performances in some ways,” he said.

“However, in terms of the end of year picture I figure all the provinces did some really nice things, we’ve become the first Irish team to win a series in Argentina which is a plus, it exposed a couple of players there to the Test environment and also to a touring environment.

“As far as the 20s are concerned, Joe and I did some work with them before they went away after Mike Ruddock invited us in. So we tried to integrate some of the principles there as well and obviously being with the Ireland A team to see how they’re going means we’ve had a good overview of everything.”