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Ex-Ireland coach spends day watching England get ready to take on Wales
By Liam Heagney
Not since the 2015 World Cup exit to Argentina has former Ireland defence coach Les Kiss been spotted on the international scene. However, that gap was bridged this week when the current London Irish coach turned up at England training on Wednesday.
The presence of Kiss at England camp in the company of Eddie Jones wasn’t as high profile a rendezvous as the sight earlier this week of John Terry, the former England and Chelsea footballer, looking on as Jones’ charges trained for their seismic Six Nations clash on Saturday away to Wales.
However, the sight of the Australian chatting away to his fellow countryman in the week of a big Test match was a sharp reminder of the type of elite rugby workplace that Kiss used to be employed in.
Kiss was a vital part of Ireland’s Six Nations title wins in 2009, 2014 and 2015, the ’09 success ending the enormous gap in between Grand Slams for the Irish that stretched back to 1948.
But he has had a difficult time since stepping away from an Ireland job that covered 82 matches across seven years and enjoyed a 61.5 percent win rate under his two coaches, Declan Kidney and Joe Schmidt.
After serving a lengthy apprenticeship in the IRFU system since his initial recruitment by Kidney in 2008, Kiss felt ready for running a team on his own terms. But his three seasons in charge as director of rugby at Ulster were a disaster.
The club’s form spiralled rather than improved and the rookie boss was cut loose in January 2018 following his third successive failure to reach the knockout stages of the Champions Cup.
Kiss wasn’t out in the cold for long. His old Test boss Kidney invited him along to help with the London Irish project he started last March. The Exile club is now on course for a return next season to the Premiership.
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Latest Comments
It is if he thinks he’s got hold of the ball and there is at least one other player between him and the ball carrier, which is why he has to reach around and over their heads. Not a deliberate action for me.
Go to commentsI understand, but England 30 years ago were a set piece focused kick heavy team not big on using backs.
Same as now.
South African sides from any period will have a big bunch of forwards smashing it up and a first five booting everything in their own half.
NZ until recently rarely if ever scrummed for penalties; the scrum is to attack from, broken play, not structured is what we’re after.
Same as now.
These are ways of playing very ingrained into the culture.
If you were in an English club team and were off to Fiji for a game against a club team you’d never heard of and had no footage of, how would you prepare?
For a forward dominated grind or would you assume they will throw the ball about because they are Fijian?
A Fiji way. An English way.
An Australian way depends on who you’ve scraped together that hasn’t been picked off by AFL or NRL, and that changes from generation to generation a lot of the time.
Actually, maybe that is their style. In fact, yes they have a style.
Nevermind. Fuggit I’ve typed it all out now.
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