1
Kiss: How Naholo behaved in London Irish training shows he's not just about the pension pot
Les Kiss, the London Irish head coach, insists All Black Waisake Naholo has a key mentoring role to play at the club and believes his try-scoring debut against Leicester proves the powerful wing has not moved to the Gallagher Premiership just to boost his pension pot.
ADVERTISEMENT
World Cup-winning wing Naholo, 28, headed to Irish on a lucrative deal after being ignored by the All Blacks for their Cup campaign in Japan and has already impressed Kiss with his help and advice for the club’s outstanding young talent including win Ben Loader and utility back Tom Parton who also scored tries in yesterday’s 36-11 bonus-point win over bottom of the table Leicester at the Madejski stadium.
Eddie Jones, the England head coach, was in the crowd to see Loader score one try and play a key role in one of the tries of the season for lock Ruan Botha. Naholo, who scored 16 tries in 26 Tests, was the star summer signing for Irish who have also brought in Ireland’s Sean O’Brien and Paddy Jackson and Wallaby Sekope Kepu.
After watching his Irish side deliver their best performance of the season to move well clear of the relegation zone, Kiss highlighted the positive impact Naholo is having on an Irish side desperate to hold onto their top flight status having been promoted from the Championship.
Kiss, whose next assignment is the Scarlets in the European Challenge Cup on Saturday, told RugbyPass: “Waisake has been very good for the young guys, but I don’t want them to be in awe of him.
“The first couple of training sessions after Waisake arrived he was carrying water out talking to the youngsters and has a natural way of putting himself into conversations. Their ears prick up when he is talking but I don’t want those young guys to step back and wait to see what Waisake can do, I want them to show him what they can do.
ADVERTISEMENT
“What impressed me was that Waisake knew the boys names when he arrived and has a keen interest in how he can help them. If I was those young guys I would be lapping it up and he is generous with his views and time.”
Kiss is playing down the impact Loader has made this season and the possible interest from Eddie Jones, insisting the young wing can get even better. He added: “We all know that you don’t try and guess what Eddie (Jones) is thinking and I wouldn’t like to put any of that kind of pressure on Ben and his job is to learn how to become a complete professional, including how you look after your body.
“I am playing it down because he needs to focus on each game. He is a great talent and has a lot more growing and maturing to do but it is all upsides.
“Ben has grown and grown from the Championship last season, his speed was always there and he just needed to bulk up in a smart way and become physical. Tom Parton will play more rugby going forward after his ACL injury (suffered last October) and showed what he had when I first came here which is that scintillating pace. It is nice to have those weapons but you need the other parts of your game to be humming and our set piece didn’t quite do that and we know there is more to come.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to comments