Les Kiss accepts pressure on at Ulster next year

Ulster director of rugby Les Kiss accepts he will be under massive scrutiny next season.

A miserable campaign will fizzle out against Leinster at Kingspan Stadium tomorrow and it will be the last meaningless game the team play for some time. A run of nine defeats in 13 games over the crucial winter period contributed to the team failing to reach the league play-offs for the first time since 2012 and being outclassed in Europe.

Having shown homegrown coaches Neil Doak and Allen Clarke the exit door, opting to replace them with All Blacks tough guy Jonny Gibbs and Welsh ex-scrum-half Dwayne Peel, Kiss has cherry-picked the staff he wants for next season. So the buck is very definitely going to stop with Ireland’s former defence coach.