Inspirational Kidney can lead Ireland to next level

COACHING CHALLENGE - DECLAN KIDNEY:"ONCE IRISH fellows get the confidence, they can win. It's all about getting it into these guys' heads. We don't think like that often enough and it gives other sides a three- to six-point advantage," Declan Kidney told The Irish Timesin 2004.

The Irish coaching job has always proved a perilous, unforgiving position, but one thing the IRFU cannot be accused of is disloyalty. Back in the 1980s, Willie John McBride served a solitary season as coach before committee juggling put Mick Doyle into the box seat while Warren Gatland felt sand-bagged by the promotion of Eddie O’Sullivan – not that he holds a grudge these days after the silverware gathered since at Wasps, Waikato and Wales. O’Sullivan’s relationship with the IRFU was solid, as proved by the pre-World Cup four-year contract extension.

If anything the union has been over-generous, as evident from the six-year Brian Ashton contract, and more than willing to provide a bedding in period – something Declan Kidney has always made decent use of as a schools and Munster coach.

The only problem is the dramatically increased expectation levels since the turn of the century. Good players ensure that is the case.

The November internationals showed just how difficult Kidney’s task promises to be with the Canada match revealing little (besides the Earls’ family making up for lost caps), the All Blacks proving superior on every level, while a typically tetchy Argentina game eventually yielded an unsure, albeit significant victory to secure Ireland’s place on the second tier of world rugby.

Kidney has inherited a respected group, allied by aspiring world-class players like Tomás O’Leary, Keith Earls, Luke Fitzgerald, Rob Kearney and Stephen Ferris. This was echoed by captain Brian O’Driscoll last week, when he described it as the strongest Irish squad he has been in.

And yet, stalling over the captaincy announcement and the November evidence leaves plenty of uncertainty ahead of the French return to Croke Park on Saturday.

Despite all the success under O’Sullivan, a familiar pattern of great victories, diluted by downright abysmal performances and the odd brave defeat has remained a hallmark of Irish rugby teams since Karl Mullen’s Grand Slam team in 1948. Kidney is tasked with bringing Ireland to the next level, up where the Welsh Grand Slam winners and Australia currently reside.

He has enough resources with the regulars – O’Driscoll, O’Connell, O’Gara, etc – fattened up by the aforementioned breakthrough artists and the promise of a continued revival in Ulster to eventually rival Leinster and, maybe even, Munster in time.

Kidney, of course, is regarded as the best non-qualified sports psychologist in Irish rugby. There are plenty of tales dating back to his time in PBC Cork, the Irish schools set-up and into the under-19 World Cup success of 1998 about how he inspired players to perform beyond their expected station.

Former UCD flanker Neil Coughlan featured on the 1998 under-19s in France, soldiering alongside Donncha O’Callaghan and O’Driscoll, making him best placed to reflect on the Kidney factor. “I remember one of the messages Declan always drove forward was wanting it more. This sounds pretty standard but he would always refer to our ability as a team being the same as other teams, which in some cases was probably not true, but he would drive the issue of mentally building for each play and tackle more than the opposition. It was pretty effective because it gave you the confidence in your ability, which against the likes of South Africa you probably thought they were going to have better players, while at the same time making you mentally prepared to battle without feeling you could lose because ability wasn’t the issue. It worked very well and gave us confidence but also made us very tough, hard to break down.

“For the final [against France] he tried to expel the myth about Ireland being a nation of good losers. He took clippings from The Irish Times showing Ireland’s golf World Cup victory and some other things dispelling the reputation of Ireland being a ‘second best nation’. He never wanted us, even for a second, to consider anything but first place as the right place for this team. France [in the final] were cocky and thought they would wipe the floor with us, but we were way more focused and really tore into them.”

As Munster coach Kidney garnered a reputation for motivational excellence. The way he handled the established ways of Mick Galway and Peter Clohessy – clearly recognising the X-factor both men brought to the Munster camp, if occasionally below par fitness regimes – was with a “subtle compromise” as Anthony Foley’s autobiography described it.

Kidney certainly possesses the credentials to find the balance absent from the team in November. A coherent selection policy coupled with renewed intensity against the visiting French at Croke Park on Saturday will tell us more.