Wednesday's English Premiership launch was like an Irish coaching reunion
Ireland’s reputation took a huge hit at Twickenham last month, their national team trounced by England by a record score in a World Cup warm-up, but Irishness was to the fore for far more respectable reasons at the same London stadium on Wednesday.
Thirteen years ago after they roamed very different prairies, Declan Kidney and Mark McCall were the two coaches chosen from the dozen present at the Premiership launch to join tournament sponsors Gallagher on the showpiece stage.
Their presence was a reminder that nothing stands still in rugby. Back in 2006, Kidney had just guided Munster to their breakthrough European Cup win while McCall was also enjoying success at Ulster, leading them to Celtic League glory.
Fast forward all these years later and while the pair are still winning trophies, they are doing so in very different circumstances. McCall is the godfather at Saracens, the figurehead of an English club fresh from collecting its second Premiership and European double inside four seasons.
Kidney can only aspire that type of dominance, arriving into the Premiership off the back of a Championship title with London Irish, who have one more season in Reading before their new stadium switch to Brentford. The veteran coach is looking to become a success in an English top-flight where the Irish connections aren’t confined to the capital city clubs.
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Former Ireland international Geordan Murphy is at the helm at Leicester, his old Test team-mate David Humphreys is Johan Ackermann’s boss at Gloucester, while Samoan Pat Lam is looking to transform Bristol in the same way he did at Connacht, whom he guided to a 2016 PRO12 title. Even Alan Solomons has a shade of green, the South African taking his initial steps on the European club scene with Ulster before he handed over there reigns in Belfast to McCall. Small world, eh?
Having splashed the cash in a way he could never have done working in the IRFU provincial system, Kidney can’t wait to find out what his first full season of Premiership action holds for him at a club he joined in March 2018 after a five-year spell away from the game after he lost his Ireland Test team job in 2013.
“We finished on May 4, which was earlier than anyone else… it’s nearly 20 weeks since we have had a game and you can go a bit brain dead too, you can do all the training that you like but it is only when you get back on the park that you know what is happening.
With attendances of just 3,000, London Irish's latest big play simply must pay off https://t.co/37d3SgJNIY
— liam heagney (@heagneyl) December 30, 2018
“Given that the (Premiership) Cup is only around the corner and then the league is only four weeks after that, it will be an important learning curve for us. As the promoted side, to have some cup matches before we actually play the league, I’m hoping it will teach us a lot and we will learn a lot about ourselves.
“You can have all these three, four, five-year plans that you like but it is important to live in the present… Brentford has potential but only if we do a bit of a job this year. To be in the Premiership when we move to Brentford is an extra prize for us.
“In Munster, you would get ready for a European match but it is like there is a lot of European matches played in the Premiership week in week out. Each week is its own challenge and there is no such thing as picking a match or isolation match. Each one is a big cup game and that is the challenge that I’m looking forward to being a part of.”
‘You would be saying thank you because the pinnacle for rugby in England is for the national team to be successful and Saracens produce players that make England better’
– Brendan Venter tells @chrisjonespress exactly why @Saracens should be praisedhttps://t.co/ZkuEbkwJC6— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 5, 2019
While Kidney is stepping into the unknown, it’s business as usual for serial trophy winner McCall at Saracens. His latest challenge is formulating a plan to cope with having an XV team of players away at the World Cup.
“We have been looking after a different group. We have got quite a lot of people who aren’t with us – we have 15 players in Japan which is fantastic for the club. That allows us to give all our attention to our younger players and we are very excited about them.
“Last year there were some teams down towards the bottom which nobody expected really and it was a real fight to get into the top four. With London Irish coming up and signing the way they have signed and having an experienced coach like Declan in the ranks…
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“You see Bristol come up last year and they are firmly established now – it is going to be an incredibly competitive league anyway and then with who is missing World Cup players, that is going to have an effect that is for sure.”
Seventy-eight Premiership players in total are in Japan for World Cup 2019, the tournament that McCall believes England are primed to do well in even though Kidney was included to give Ireland a free pass for the calamity they encountered at Twickenham only a few weeks ago.
“From an Irish point of view, it was an accident waiting to happen… the Irish lads won’t be reading too much into as they were both at different parts of their prep. I wouldn’t read too much into these warm-up games,” Kidney claimed.
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World Cup credentials built and destroyed in 80 mins at Twickenham #RugbyWorldCup #ENGvsIRL
“It is the best World Cup, the most open for years, and anybody who gets a bit of momentum in it will go a long way. There will be twists and turns along the way – it is the hardest one to call.”
Last word to McCall. “Ireland are a team who on their day can beat anybody. They have proven that over the last two or three seasons, a couple of wins over the All Blacks, the Grand Slam that they had. They are reliant upon not getting injuries to key players but from what I can see England are the team that can probably absorb some injuries.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
While Iose is destructive in the Canes set-up, he is not big for an international 8 and could struggle against the top teams. With his speed, he could be developed into a seven but, as Ben points out, he doesn’t show a scavenging game with the Canes or make dominating tackles. Sotutu has shown a step up this year and attitude plus motivation seems to be the big areas of growth. Deserves another AB shot imo.
3 Go to commentsNaholo is my only question mark for this side. He wasn’t the only one who had a forgettable game against the Brumbies but he was passive, defensively poor and generally lacked energy. Needs to get a whole lot busier for me. I would have liked to see Sullivan on that wing with Higgins on the bench (if staying with a 6-2 as BeegMike points out on here!)
3 Go to commentsWell, I am sure that Eben said exactly what he meant to say, exactly how he meant to say it. Does he strike you as a man that doesn't know arrogance when he sees it. He should know it because he has shaken the arrogance out of many foes before.
126 Go to commentsPls get it into your thick arrogant heads that the final was played by two Southern Hemisphere teams. The best against the best and that Argentina was just unlucky otherwise non of the Northetn Hemisphere teams would have seen the light of day.
126 Go to commentsAs long as New Zealand youth are involved in sport they are passionate for, and are well supported, it’s all good. I love league as well as rugby. NRL clubs have long since scouted the First 15 competitions, the NH and Japan scout super rugby and NPC. It’s a miracle there’s any players left for the all blacks to pick from.
4 Go to commentsI'm a Bok fan, so I don't say this lightly, but he is one of my all time favourite players. I am really going to miss watching him play. Thanks for many great memories. You are a true legend of the game.
3 Go to commentsBest way to deal with all of this is to play another game.
126 Go to commentsIt’s 12-15 games Luke. Ringrose has barely played in 2024 and Henshaw and Keenan have also been out for spells in the same time period. There are always injuries and for younger players to play with the likes of Barrett will be great for them. It’s just looking for negatives where there are none.
5 Go to commentsAndy Goode pushing his own agenda with very dubious considerations on refereeing performances. Luke Pearce speaking a bit of French doesn’t make him a good and adequate referee for the Champions Cup final; his latest refereeing performance in particular was not so great.
4 Go to commentsJordie knows that he has to earn the right to put on the jersey, whatever that jersey might be.
5 Go to commentsThe best outside centre in the world at one point. He will be greatly missed.
3 Go to commentsYip his great for the big moments when needed as a safa really enjoy watching him
4 Go to commentsOne that will start to come up from now on is penalties for back pushes during kick chase scrambles. Very difficult to detect. In Croke Park if you replay the Hendy NH try, you will see Furbank push Porter in the back, who collides with Larmour knocking the ball across into Hendy’s path to dot down. A more significant example was in the RWC QTR final where Arendse pushes Fickou into two other French players for the ball to spill into Arendse’s path for him to gather and run in to score SAs first try. Not cheating if you are not caught and very difficult to spot but with kicking becoming so critical I feel its an area that will referreeed/TMO-ed more.
4 Go to commentsWhat a pathetic little twit Andy Goode is, as if we care what he thinks…..😂
126 Go to commentsFoxy has been a wonderful player for the Scarlets and Wales.
3 Go to commentsNika the Georgian is the best referee in the world at the moment. Luckily we will be spared the shite SH refs and Barnes will hopefully remain retired given how shite and embarrassing he was at the RWC.
4 Go to commentsThis is the most exciting game of the summer imo, as we really won’t know in advance how both teams are going to play. - Will Robertson just reproduce his Crusaders tactics from last year, or will there be a conscious effort to borrow from the Hurricanes and Blues, and from the aspects of the ABs world cup strategy that worked well? - England under Borthwick have put in some good performances playing attacking rugby, and some good performances playing kick-oriented defensive rugby. Will Borthwick try to merge them together into a single all-court game, or will he continue switching between different approaches depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition?
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
9 Go to commentsFinals are always tense affairs for the players so I do not expect this to be a spectacle of running rugby unfortunately.
4 Go to comments