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©INPHO/Morgan Treacy
end of era

Ireland's ongoing inconsistency ended Kidney's reign

We look back on the Cork man’s stint as international coach, which ended after a poor 2013 Six Nations.

2013 MAY GO down as an essential turning point in Irish rugby history, given that Joe Schmidt assumed the head coaching position of the national team this year.

It is hoped that the Kiwi will lead Ireland towards being a more consistent international side, particularly as it was Declan Kidney’s inability to do so that cost him the job.

The Cork man was relieved of his role on the 2nd of April, despite having a contract that ran until the 30th of June. Ireland’s miserable 2013 Six Nations campaign all but sealed Kidney’s fate, ending a five-year reign that included some unforgettable highs.

The 2009 Grand Slam was the undoubted pinnacle of the former Munster boss’ time with Ireland, coming in his first season in charge. Our leading players, including Ronan O’Gara, Jamie Heaslip and Brian O’Driscoll, were all in superb form and Kidney cleverly made tweaks to his starting team and Ireland’s tactics throughout.

In short, the new coach had a Midas touch and ended 2009 as the IRB Coach of the Year. The future promised so much, but that early flourish was not a true sign of things to come. Ireland had several superb one-off performances over the next four seasons, but never quite managed to be the possible sum of their parts.

The 2011 Rugby World Cup victory against Australia will rightly be remembered as a special day, while 2012 so nearly brought a first victory over the All Blacks. However, those exceptional, aggressive displays were repeated far too rarely for Ireland. Inconsistency plagued Kidney’s time in charge of the national team.

imageThe pressure continued to build on Kidney after defeat to Italy. ©INPHO/James Crombie.

2013 was the year when it all came to a head. An excellent opening day 33-20 victory in Wales again promised so much, but was simply a tease. A week later England were deserved 12-6 winners in Dublin, before a crushing 12-8 loss in Scotland. A 13-13 draw at home to France offered little encouragement, before the 22-15 defeat in Italy left Kidney’s position in real danger.

Injuries certainly played their part in denying the ex-school teacher many of his best players, but his muddled and sometimes conservative tactics were also highly decisive in the poor form. There was also an over-reliance on the tried and trusted in team selection and from the outside, it appeared that Ireland’s players had lost some of their desire to play international rugby.

A coaching change was the only realistic solution.

Kidney’s time as Ireland’s head coach came to an end in 2013, but it would be a shame if his abilities were lost to rugby completely. He has moved into a role as Director of Sport at UCC and the hope would have to be that he remains involved with the sport in which he made his name.

It is worth remembering the excellence of his time with Munster, where his competence in managing and motivating was at its peak. Two Heineken Cups are evidence of that, even if Kidney was fortunate to have control of an exceptional group of homegrown talent.

Those memories cannot be diminished by what happened in his tenure as Ireland coach, and the impression is that Kidney was always better suited to coaching at a provincial/club level, where he could plan every aspect of training, recovery and tactics on a day-to-day basis. It also gave players a chance to get to know and understand his personality in greater depth.

After the initial spell of success, those factors simply didn’t transfer into the international arena and the IRFU’s decision to call time on Kidney’s reign in 2013 was met with widespread relief.

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