The Coaching Countdown
Ireland's destruction at the hands of the world champions has left many wondering now what? An ageing squad with a stale mentality, a long and disappointing international season with a draw in Paris and win over Australia the only highlights, where do we go from here?
It's simple to jump straight on the "Kidney Out bandwagon “ a bandwagon I've been at the front of, caught up in the emotion and passion of rugby. I even set the wonderful Kidney Clock (available here http://kidneyclock.net/ ) as my homepage. A bandwagon that pushes a what next agenda and is shrouded with fickle negativity, but is blaming Deccie the simple solution? Is there something more?
Kidney's record with Ireland since taking charge is as follows; won 25 lost 19 drawn 2. Not so bad right? Wrong, when you remove Russia, Fiji, Samoa, USA, Canada and Italy, the record is horrible viewing. Won 12, Lost 19 Drawn 2... 4 of those victories where in the 2009 Grand Slam, that seems to be indefensible.
Let's start with the most recent failure, New Zealand. With the exception of the second test in Christchurch, Ireland were totally and utterly destroyed. There was a 115 points difference between the two sides, the totals for the series being New Zealand 144 “ 29 Ireland.
In three tests, The All Blacks scored 14 points more than Ireland managed in their five Six Nations games this season, and when you think 74 of Ireland's 130 points came against Italy and Scotland, it speaks volumes. It raises the question of why these Summer Tests are scheduled in the first place, I hardly believe even the most optimistic Irish fan was relishing the thought of the team travelling 11,586 miles from Dublin to New Zealand to take on The All Blacks.
I know the reasons lie in some rugby suits deciding test series are great financial tools and if north heads south in the summer and vice versa in the autumn, we're all happy and the game lives happily ever after, but not in year long season “ The All Blacks are savages (I mean that in an envious rugby ability way), heading to their back garden just eight months after they've won the World Cup and 11 months after your season has started with little to no break is the equivalent of me running two marathons and then deciding after the second marathon I'll fight Mike Tyson, with an arm tied behind my back. The point I'm trying to make is this summer tour was dumber than the analogy I just attempted to create.
The Excuses
Ireland went into this series after a long season, tiredness is something that can be jumped on in terms of excuses and reasonably so, the third test was in the 51st week of a season for the majority of the players involved, that is for the sake of argument, a full year of grinding, with two trips to New Zealand on the clock.
It's an ageing squad, with its fair share of injuries. Kidney was missing, amongst others, Paul O'Connell, Tommy Bowe, Stephen Ferris and Luke Fitzgerald - granted Fitzgerald hasn't been in Kidney's plans lately but he is a player of undeniable quality, and a Lion. In fact if we want to get into the entire nitty gritty Kidney has had selection problems since 09.
That Grand Slam side has seen seven retirements, and six more of the 23 man squad of 09 were injured and unavailable; only Brian O'Driscoll and Rob Kearney started as survivors of 09, and that is a Brian O'Driscoll who has had two surgeries this season. But if we want to play the injury card as an excuse we have to look at it on both sides, injuries helped us when we had our champagne moment against Australia in the World Cup. The Wallabies were missing Pocock, Ionae and Barnes not to mention the fact that the All Blacks side that embarrassed Ireland featured just five of the side that lined out in the RWC Final last October - injuries a blessing and an excuse.
Realistically there are tons of excuses that can be drawn up, from those listed above to Nigel Owens decision making, I even heard someone suggest the squad morale had been shattered because Rala had not travelled on this tour. Don't get me wrong, I subscribe to cult of Rala and enjoy hearing the stories about the man the myth and the legend too, but his absence had nothing to do with a 60 nil drubbing.
Sadly something that did have something to do with the drubbing was the management's decision to fly a holidaying Paddy Wallace from Portugal to New Zealand and expect him to face up against Sonny Bill Williams and Conrad Smith... and then expect him to perform. No disrespect to Wallace, he had an incredible season with Ulster and does not deserve slack for answering the call, but the decision was ludicrous. There was cover in the squad there already, in spades. McFadden, Earls, Trimble, Cave, Sexton even Kearney could have been slotted in and the back line reshuffled.
So, that brings us on to examining what next, we have to look forward. Kidney's contract takes him up to beyond the Six Nations 2013. Ireland will have eight games under the former Munster maestro and they are eight games that are huge. The Autumn series are effectively a must win because Ireland must stay in that coveted top eight of the IRB rankings, which, will decide the seeding for the 2015 RWC. The seeding system is one that sees the tiers set at the end of this calendar year and simply put, if Ireland fall out of the top eight seeds we will have two power house teams in our group, if we are in the top eight we can only have one, all be it one of the top four.
The remaining five games are crucial for Irish players wanting to put themselves in the shop window for the Lions tour, and for Kidney and his future employment prospects.
So where to start? Going into the Autumn series the coaching options need to be looked at, Gert Smal and Les Kiss are good coaches but there needs to be a change, Kidney is not going to be turfed out in the style of a Premier League manager, so what can change?
Losing Alan Gaffney was a blow that never really was dealt with, it left Ireland with this double jobbing system in the coaches, and that is something that was never going to work. There is a natural conflict in it and a fresh approach would do a lot to break up the stale crust of the Irish backroom. The biggest problem being trying to get someone else on board “ Joe Scmidt is the name on everyone's lips and if he could be brought in on a coaching or advisory role there would surely be huge benefits. The biggest obstacle to this is Schmidt has become God at Leinster, and the talk is that he won't be around in two years time as he is being primed for a job in his native New Zealand. It is an outside punt but what coaching set up could refuse a man who boasts an undefeated record in the Heineken Cup as a head coach?
Conor O' Shea is possibly a future head coach in the making; he has been doing a great job at Quins and no doubt would relish an opportunity to be involved in the national set up. He knows the players and the set up but is it a pipe dream for Kidney to reach out to a potential would be successor? Although preferably I'd like to see O'Shea in an almost director like role similar to what he is doing at Quins, perhaps with Mike Ruddock on board.
Ireland need a progressive system, a complete overhaul from grassroots all the way up, someone who can come in and change the psyche of the squad and indeed the IRFU, implement a system and breed a new style of rugby, but that is a flippant throw away statement that perhaps I will get into at a later date.
On the field options must be explored too, Donnacha Ryan was our best player this summer by far, and it has taken a long, long time for him to convince the coaching gods he is not just willing but able. While New Zealand reshuffled their players almost for fun, Ireland were as predictable as day turning to night. Three new faces in Simon Zebo, Declan Fitzpatrick and Ronan Loughney were all that Kidney offered in terms of change. Had injuries not forced his hand you can be certain it would have been business as usual with the predictable pack and backs.
There is an innate fear of change in Ireland, even now there are still those that push for O'Gara ahead of Sexton, and wish Keith Wood and Willie John McBride could somehow revive their rugby careers.
The likes of Darren Cave, Ian Madigan, Ian Keatly and Devin Toner must be wondering how they can kick down the door and be given a chance. Indeed, Cave can look at the Paddy Wallace call up and consider it a kick in the rocks. I know I would.
It seems alarmingly obvious the IRFU won't act and will allow Kidney see out his contract, meaning we are due more of the same in the coming months, let's just hope Kidney can finish with a bang, his record at present is disastrous, this season Ireland played 17 tests and won just 6 but if somehow a Grand Slam was to be won in 2013, by some miracle, Kidney would be the greatest of the great.
What if that's the big what next? I won't hold my breath, but I may just have quiet and wishful check of Ireland's odds for the Six Nations.
