On a hiding to nothing – Declan Kidney’s Ireland story

After years of supplying the majority of Ireland’s Test players from his Munster teams, in November 2008 Declan Kidney took control of Ireland as head coach for the first time, a 55-0 win against Canada at the rebuilt Thomond Park. Just over a year later he’d won 11 of his first 13 Tests in charge – only the All Blacks (22-3 in his 2nd Test) and Australia (20-20 in his 11th) had got any change, he had ended Ireland’s 61-year wait for a Grand Slam and he had been named IRB Coach of the Year. It was quite a start, and a lot to live up to; too much, as it turned out, a wobbly Six Nations making the IRFU decide against renewing his coaching contract, and not for the first time.

Six Nations 2013 – Murrayfield explained

In the lead-up to the Six Nations’ round-three matches, tGL indicated that possession efficiency, and not just high possession and/or territory percentages, was the key to victories, so the almost universal ‘How did they do that?’ reaction that followed Scotland’s ‘surprise’ 12-8 home win against Ireland was a little disappointing, but almost totally predictable. When a team manufactures victory from such scarce raw material, the standard option is disbelief. In the eyes of so many, the Murrayfield outcome simply didn’t arrive the way it was supposed to, but to think sporting logic was defied, or that statistics might somehow be irrelevant as a consequence, is off the mark; after all, the right information was all there beforehand.