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Long-serving London Irish boss Declan Kidney doesn’t believe the pressure has ratcheted up at the club as they seek to snap a ten-match winless streak in the Gallagher Premiership when they host Gloucester next Sunday. It is the Exiles’ most barren run of results in the top-flight since the 14-match winless streak of 2017/18 resulted in the appointment of the Irishman as director of rugby in March 2018 prior to their relegation to the Championship.
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Irish only spent one campaign in the second tier but their struggle for improved Premiership results has become a theme of the Kidney era. Last Saturday’s defeat to Leicester was the club’s 33rd on-pitch Premiership defeat in 50 outings with the ex-Ireland and Munster coach at the helm, their meagre 13 victories (and four draws) good enough for just a 26 per cent win ratio.
You have to go back to last March against Bath for their most recent Premiership win and while they have generally been competitive in this latest winless run, five of their defeats being by five points or less, some Irish fans have started to lose patience with the Kidney tenure judging by social media comments after the latest setback against the Tigers. Some of the Twitter posts questioning the luckless Irish were:
- “We’ve spent millions to achieve nothing. Something is clearly wrong at the top and it feels like K&K (Kidney and Les Kiss) are out of ideas.”
- “Lost for words, we need to start winning. We have the talent so what’s actually wrong?”
- “Since we were last promoted, we’ve played something like 48 games and only won 12! It’s just not good enough. With that kind of win rate, in most other sports Kidney and Kiss would be long gone.”
- “It is getting very boring now to lose week in and week out. You get our hopes up to then dash them.”
Asked by RugbyPass if he was feeling any sense of added pressure at the moment, Kidney replied: “No, nothing new. Everyone has been very nice.”
"The burn cuts on the knees and legs for three or four players were quite significant…"
– One Premiership club was left feeling sore following their experience on a synthetic surface last month#GallagherPrem #Irish #Sarries #leggings #GLOvLIRhttps://t.co/FUEOSekPcV
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 13, 2021
Irish have so far lost to Worcester, Northampton and Leicester, while also drawing with Sale, in their latest Premiership campaign following on from the run of six losses that brought the curtain down on their efforts last term and cost them qualification for the Heineken Champions Cup. Kidney, though, isn’t lost the faith in his team, insisting they are playing must better this season and a W is only a matter of when and not if in being achieved. “You are combining the end of last season with this season which is understandable,” he accepted when the ten-match winless run was put to him.
“The matches at the end of last season (the reason we lost) were the finishes. This year we had an unhealthy start in two of the four matches where we gave up 17-point leads and got our way back against Sale but didn’t quite get our way back against Northampton. We managed to rectify that last week (against Leicester). To be fair they are different circumstances. It’s a statistical thing of drawing matches this year together with matches last year, but I know we are playing better this year than we did last year.”
Kidney has assembled a squad from around the world to help bring through a core group of promising English youngsters, but it has yet to deliver a consistently winning blend at Irish. “You want the players to get a bit of a reward for their effort but it doesn’t guarantee that you will get it, so if you get anxious about it or if you say you have to do something then in sport it rarely happens like that. Take golf, if you think, ‘God I have to get a par on this hole’, you will probably end up with a treble bogey.
“What you have to do is just go out and play the game, believe in yourself, deal with the things that Gloucester throw at you, deal with the different scenarios that are around a match and see where that leaves you at the end. It would be nice to get it [the win] and it is important to get it and I wouldn’t underestimate any of that but if you try and force it then it doesn’t happen then either.
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“You just have to have that belief in yourself to go out, trust your process, trust what you are doing knowing we have been knocking on the door. It takes courage to knock on the door and my belief is that we are learning to win. Sometimes if you learn to win you stay in a better place for longer because sometimes if you get a few easy wins at the start you don’t learn what actually went into it whereas now we have reference points to bring back into it and that will stand us in stronger stead going forward. Would we like to win? Absolutely, but there is no point in trying to force it.
“There are lots of people with experience here, people with a hundred international caps, so it is not like I have to show them how to suck eggs and the younger players are building up a degree of experience as well, so that will come together and get us the wins as time goes on. When that will be, it will be but I know they will come.”
"He is a funny little man…"
– London Irish were recently criticised for having Paddy Jackson in a leadership role, but Nick Phipps explains the No10's genuine value to the club as a leader#LondonIrish #PremRugby #LIRvLEIhttps://t.co/6av94icmZX
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 5, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
Thanks for the write up. Great to see the Rebs winning, I am a little interested in how they will go against the remaining kiwi teams, I think they’ve only played Hurricanes and Highlanders but how great to see these players performing!! I also see Parling has a job beyond June 30! A good move by RA? Also how do you fix the Rebels previously scratchy defence?
81 Go to commentsbe smart - go black
13 Go to commentsNext week the Crusaders hopefully have Scott Barrett back. Will be great to have the captain back. Hopefully he will be the All Black captain as well.
12 Go to commentsExciting place to be for the young fella. I expected he was French Polynesian when I saw him included in the France 6N squad (after seeing him in NZs), and therefor be strong grounds we might loose him to rugby down here. Good, in that he is good enough to warrant such a profile, and from a journalism’s fan interaction aspect, to finally get a back ground story on the fella. Hope he has settled into NZ OK and that at least one rugby country will fit with him to help his development, which, if so, he should surely continue for a few years, and then that he can experience France to it’s fullest with a bit more maturity and less reliance on family than you would have at his current age. A good 3 or 4 years before he would be ready for International duty if he wanted to wait. Of course he already sounds good enough to accept a call up, and to cap himself, in the more immediate future (he’d have to be very very good in the case of the ABs), and he’ll get a great taste of that being with the Canes who have a bunch who are just a few years further into their career and looking likely Internationals themselves.
13 Go to commentsI remember towards the end of the original broadcasting deal for Super rugby with Newscorp that there was talk about the competition expanding to improve negotiations for more money - more content, more cash. Professional rugby was still in its infancy then and I held an opposing view that if Super rugby was a truly valuable competition then it should attract more broadcasters to bid for the rights, thereby increasing the value without needing to add more teams and games. Unfortunately since the game turned professional, the tension between club, talent and country has only grown further. I would argue we’re already at a point in time where the present is the future. The only international competitions that matter are 6N, RC and RWC. The inter-hemisphere tours are only developmental for those competitions. The games that increasingly matter more to fans, sponsors and broadcasters are between the clubs. Particularly for European fans, there are multiple competitions to follow your teams fortunes every week. SA is not Europe but competes in a single continental competition, so the travel component will always be an impediment. It was worse in the bloated days of Super rugby when teams traversed between four continents - Africa, America, Asia and Australia. The percentage of players who represent their country is less than 5% of the professional player base, so the sense of sacrifice isn’t as strong a motivation for the rest who are more focused on playing professional rugby and earning as much from their body as they can. Rugby like cricket created the conundrum it’s constantly fighting a losing battle with.
3 Go to commentsOh wow… “But as La Rochelle proved in winning in Cape Town this season, a cross-continental away assignment need not spell the end of days.” La Rochelle actually proved quite the opposite. After traveling to Cape town and back they (back-to-back and current champs) got mercilessly thumped the next week. If travel is not the reason, why else would a full-strength powerhouse like La Rochelle get dumped on their @r$e$ one week later?
26 Go to commentsYou know he can land a winning conversion after the full time siren is up. (Even if it takes two attempts.)
5 Go to commentsA very insightful article from Jake. I would love to know how South African’s feel about their move to Europe. Do you prefer playing in Europe or want to go back to Super Rugby?
3 Go to commentspure fire
1 Go to commentsA very well thought out summary of all the relevant complications…agree with your ”refer the Cricket Test versus 20/20 comparison”. More also definitely doesn't necessarily mean better!
3 Go to commentsMust be something when you are only 19 y.o and both NZ and France want you. Btw he wasn’t the only new caledonian in french U20 as Robin Couly also lived in Noumea until 17. Hope he’s successful wherever he chooses to play.
13 Go to comments“Several key players in the Stade Rochelais squad are in their thirties” South Africans are going to hate the implications of that comment!
5 Go to commentsI know Leinster did a job on La Roche but shortly after HT Leinster were 30-13 ahead of them and at a similar time Toulouse were trailing Exeter. At 60 mins Leinster were 27 ahead but after 67 mins Toulouse were only 19 ahead before Exeter collapsed. That’s heavier scoring by Leinster against the Champions. I think people are looking at Toulouses total a little too much. I also think Northhampton are in with a real chance, albeit I’d put Leinster as favourites. If Leinster make the final I expect them to win by more than ten and with control.
5 Go to commentsHey Nick, your match analysis is decent but the top and tail not so much, a bit more random. For a start there’s a seismic difference in regenerating any club side over a test team. EJ pretty much had to urinate with the appendage he’d been given at test level whereas club success is impacted hugely by the budget. Look no further than Boudjellal’s Toulon project for a perfect example. The set ups at La Rochelle and Leinster are like chalk and cheese and you are correct that Leinster are ahead. Leinster are not just slightly ahead though, they are light years ahead on their plans, with the next gen champions cup team already blooded, seasoned and developing at speed from their time manning the fort in the URC while the cream play CC and tests. They have engineered a strong talent conveyor belt into their system, supported by private money funnelled into a couple of Leinster private schools. The really smart move from Leinster and the IRFU however is maximising the Irish Revenue tax breaks (tax relief on the best 10 years earnings refunded at retirement) to help keep all of their stars in Ireland and happy, while simultaneously funding marquee players consistently. And of course Barrett is the latest example. But in no way is he a “replacement for Henshaw”, he’s only there for one season!!! As for Rob Baxter, the best advice you can give him is to start lobbying Parliament and HMRC for a similar state subsidy, but don’t hold your breath… One thing Cullen has been very smart with is his coaching team. Very quickly he realised his need to supplement his skills, there was talk of him exiting after his first couple of years but he was extremely shrewd bringing in Lancaster and now Nienaber. That has worked superbly and added a layer that really has made a tangible difference. Apart from that you were bang on the money… 😉😂
5 Go to commentsNot sure exactly what went wrong for him at Glasgow but it’s pretty clear he ain’t Franco’s cup of tea. Suspect he would have been better served heading out of Scotland around the same time as Finn, Hoggy and Jonny!
1 Go to commentsBulls disrespected the Northampton supporters and the competition. Decide quickly, fully in or out.
26 Go to commentsI wonder if Parling was ever on England’s radar as a coach? Obviously Borthwick is a great lineout coach, but I do worry he might be taking on too much as both head coach and forwards coach.
1 Go to commentsJason Jenkins has one cap. When Etzebeth was his age he had over 80 caps. Experience matters. He will never amount to what Etzebeth has because he hasn’t been developed as an international player.
2 Go to commentsSays much about the player picking this gig over the easier and bigger rewards offered to him in Japan. Also says a lot about the state sanctioned tax benefits the Irish Revenue offers pro rugby players, with their ten highest earning years subject to an additional 40% tax relief and paid as a lump sum, in cash, at retirement. Certainly helps Leinster line up the financial ducks in a row to fund marquee signings like this!!! No other union anywhere in world rugby benefits from this kind of lucrative financial sponsorship from their government…
5 Go to commentsTrue Jordie could earn a lot more in Japan. But by choosing Leinster he’ll be playing with 1 of the best clubs in the world and can win a champions cup and URC…..
6 Go to comments