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Les Kiss: 'It felt a bit of unfinished business when I had to go'

Reds boss Les Kiss issues instructions at training last week in Bristol (Photo by Anthony Wingard/Reds Rugby)

This week is a sort of Irish homecoming for Australia’s Les Kiss. Having stuffed the Bristol Bears last Friday at Ashton Gate, his Queensland Reds are in Belfast for Friday’s second part of their northern hemisphere pre-season tour. It’s a trip that is allowing the Super Rugby Pacific club’s boss to retrace his steps in a place where he didn’t get to say a proper goodbye seven years ago.

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It was January 2018 when his role as Ulster director of rugby was nuked. Ten days after a limp 7-26 loss at Wasps eliminated the Irish province from the Champions Cup, Kiss was turfed out with immediate effect. He got lucky. Five weeks later, he was unveiled as the London Irish head coach under his former Ireland boss Declan Kidney.

Five years later, he got even luckier as within five weeks of the Gallagher Premiership club entering administration in June 2023 and falling out of the English league, he was unveiled as Brad Thorn’s successor at the Reds.

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With their latest SR Pacific campaign slated to start on February 21 at home to Moana in Brisbane, Kiss is currently tying up his squad’s loose ends with a European adventure that he hopes will be the bedrock for a season that lasts longer than 2024’s quarter-final run that ended away to the Chiefs in Hamilton.

Kiss could have balked at the idea of returning to Ulster, given his unceremonious sacking there. However, there was no hesitation from him when it came to finalising the Reds’ tour opposition. Belfast? Yes, please.

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“It was interesting when we were doing the deal to get teams to play and Ulster came up – I thought that would be a great opportunity,” he enthused to RugbyPass. “First of all, to run out and they are singing, ‘Stand up for the Ulster men’, that’s an experience that is compelling and motivating.

“It’s something that will really, really give the guys an experience they haven’t had. That type of thing is going to be fantastic so, from the playing perspective, it’s a massive opportunity to experience something in that way and it’s bloody brilliant.

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“I used to love that (atmosphere). And, from a personal perspective, I only had one full year there and two half years so it felt like a bit of unfinished business when I had to go and they called me up at London Irish. I’ve only fond memories.

“The talent is brilliant. I guess it’s always been a matter of how we get that together and make it a machine like Leinster have. Just get it right and have all those mechanisms and the governance processes into a space where the place can really flourish.

“Look, it’s a rich, beautiful history of rugby. I’m looking forward to seeing some old friends, some people that were certainly very kind to me when I was up there and afforded me a lot of time to get to know the place.”

So what non-rugby pitstops are on the schedule? “I have got to hit General Merchants, I’m pretty sure it is still there not far from Stormont. I used to be a regular. Used to love my avocado and I introduced Vegemite; they called it the Kiss breakfast. It probably won’t be there now but just little experiences like that.

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“It’s a different city to any other the boys will experience in the surrounds and the people, so looking forward to that. There were a couple of haunts I used to have a beer at and I’ll venture into one or two or those with a couple of my staff. In my coaching team, we have Jonathan Fisher who played in the U19s World Cup there (with England), so he knew it as a youngster. Brad Davis, who coached with Bath, Wasps and Irish, experienced it as well.

“Unfortunately, Jeffery Toomaga-Allen has an injury. He was a cult hero at Ulster in a lot of ways and he is certainly doing the same where he is now. He is such a good man, a giver who is such an influence on the young props we are growing.

Les Kiss Ulster
Les Kiss takes the pitch as Ulster director of rugby in December 2016 (Photo by Oliver McVeigh/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

“It would have been nice to go there with him, but to get back and see – Iain Henderson won’t be there because of the internationals but Kieran Treadwell, Alan O’Connor, Stuart McCloskey – some of the guys, that will certainly bring back some fantastic memories.”

Creating new ones with the Reds, though, is the priority. From Bundaberg, the 60-year-old Kiss played State of Origin for Queensland before switching from league to union and carving out a venerable coaching career that included assisting Ireland in 2009 to bridge the 61-year gap to their 1948 Grand Slam. Going ‘home’ in 2023 felt right.

“When London Irish hit the wall and it wasn’t to be anymore, there was a lot of emotional energy, 132 people out of work and trying to help position all those things – but within that whole thing, two opportunities came up, Edinburgh and the Reds.

“Australia was never on my radar again. I didn’t think I would be picked up by an Australian club. But Queensland is home. I played State of Origin, so there is that connection to the maroon jersey. There was part of it full circle in that sense of coming back around.

“I’d coached at the Waratahs but to come back and coach at the Reds, as it sunk in, as I landed and did those (first) press conferences, there was something definitely sitting there saying, ‘This is fantastic’. I landed with a brand new facility being built, landed with a really good squad albeit young but they have a lot of caps under their belt. It felt right and it was great to get back and experience Australian rugby again.

“The different skill sets that apply and mindsets about your sport, how everyone talks about you have got the sun and can play all the sports, I didn’t remember it and you can see what type of skill pervades through the group because of those experiences they have had growing up as kids.

“It was certainly a moment that first week when I landed to sign the contract and did those press conferences, something felt right. The Reds wanted to find a way to take a step forward and the board were very good, they let me pick my coaching team and some key people that I needed to make sure it would work.

“I have an unbelievable coaching team, fantastic; we are all driving the same way. My general manager Sam Cordingley is absolutely superb, he is on page with me. It’s very collaboratively supported but also a very adventurous and ambitious group that fitted my psyche straight away.”

Enhancing the brand with initiatives such as their pre-season Anglo-Irish tour is all part of the plan aiming to make the Reds stand out in a crowded Australian marketplace. “When is the last time a Super Rugby club was here? From an Australian perspective, I can’t remember. Is it 25 years since we have done it?

“The experiences of rugby, that is our point of difference in our competitive market in Australia which is massive. Cricket is the national sport. AFL, rugby league. There is football as well. Union is challenging those things but it’s not as cashed up. I just thought really investing into the opportunities you have in rugby are a point of difference.

“Touring. Playing international teams. Playing Wales and Tonga after the 2024 Super Rugby season. Re-establishing our brand through that lens was an important part of what I thought could help the Reds brand grow.

“Look, it’s a famous brand from the Lynaghs, the Slacks, the McLeans and all those guys who came through in the ’80s and early ’90s. Since then they haven’t done a lot in terms of extending their brand. The board and the executive were very supportive of the tour.

Les Kiss Chelsea
Les Kiss (left) on a visit to the Chelsea training ground in London last week (Photo via Pete Fairbairn/Queensland Reds)

“I managed to establish a deal to get us over here and from several perspectives, it’s exciting. As a retention and recruitment tool, it’s nice that we are very adventurous and have an appetite to invest in those areas. The fact that we have a British and Irish Lions tour this year puts another flavour.

“Some of our Wallabies and some guys on the edges of that get a chance to experience what it is to play against that type of thinking game the northern hemisphere has. There are contrasting styles between Ulster and Bristol, but exposure to that is massive.

“And Belfast is going to be an unbelievable experience for people who don’t understand that history. There are a lot of young men who don’t understand that type of history. It’s not going to be front and centre, but it’s about recognising the value that our game gives you these opportunities. There is an appetite to explore our points of difference in the Australian market – that makes it important for people to stay in the game.”

While the Reds won the Australian-only tournament in 2021, they haven’t succeeded in the cross-border Super Rugby since 2011. There were eight wins in 14 regular season outings last year in their first Kiss campaign, enough to secure a fifth-place finish, but better is now expected.

“There was massive growth throughout the season. Finding out who we were together was important. That accelerated through the season and into now. There is a sense there is an expectation around the place and I get it, it’s important to have that. It’s just about making sure we temper it in the right way.

“There is going to be tougher competition in Australia this year with the demise of Melbourne Rebels. You are putting a lot of good players into the other provinces in Australia, so that is going to make every team better. But if I focus on who the Reds are, overall we generally accept there is a Queensland sort of psyche that exists… a sense from the south that we are always the poor cousins and all that thing in terms of Australian sport.

“So there is an expectation to do well internally. There definitely is an expectation externally to do well but I have been really pleased, there is a maturity in these young guys to say we just want to work hard and they do work hard. They understand what is possible is only going to be more probable by doing what we need to and that’s important for us.

“We have got to work out how we can put some combinations together so that we can change gears within a game, from game to game and be a lot smarter. Not too dissimilar to what a Leinster can do, move their team a bit so they can stay nice and fresh and always be at the coalface with the action.

“So that is going to be a real exploration this year for us at the Reds, see can we use the type of players that we have right through the team and keep everyone fresh but also getting the right amount of game time as well.”

Aussie club improvement to boost the Wallabies in a British and Irish Lions tour year is vital. “It’s a little like Wales’ experience at the moment when no team there is flourishing. It just hurts everything, so to get that back up and running would be good.

“Brumbies have probably been the standard bearer, getting to semi-finals. The Waratahs have got a delicious team, they will come out of the ground and really improve. For us, we want to make sure we put ourselves back to where the Reds were years ago – one of the premier teams in the Super Rugby competition, always competing.

“A good Super Rugby comp only helps the Wallabies and that’s part of the thing you can’t escape here. On the home front, we have got to be who we are as Queensland but we need to make sure that can help the national agenda as well.”

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