Declan Kidney: Great Man Manager or Luckiest Man Alive

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On Saturday 24th May 2008 Declan Kidney masterminded Munsters triumph over Toulouse in the Heineken Cup final in Cardiff. Shortly after he was appointed to the role of head coach of the Ireland national team, and just months later had led them to the 6 Nations title and their first grand slam since 1948. The IRB coach of the year award followed later in 2009, a year in which another Irish province, Leinster, won the Heineken Cup.

During Kidneys reign as Ireland supremo, Leinster have in fact won the Heineken Cup twice, and also made the Celtic League play off final twice. Munster have won the Celtic twice in the same period, and Ulster have established themselves as a top half of the table side, making last years play off semi final, along with the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup. So far this season, those three provinces have all qualified for the knockout stages of Europes premier club competition again, and all sit within the top half of the Rabo Direct table, with Leinster top and Munster currently set for the play offs.

It is clear looking the results of the provinces, and the players coming through the academy systems in Ireland, that the set up there is good, and they are producing players capable of performing to a very high level. Whilst overseas stars may have grabbed the headlines in Ulster's recent demolition of Leicester Tigers, homegrown talent such as Rory Best, Chris Henry, Paul Marshall, Paddy wallace and Andrew Trimble all contributed hugely, much as the likes of Sean O'Brien, Jamie Heaslip, Johnny Sexton, Paul O'Connell, Ronan O'Gara and Keith Earls have done for Leinster and Munster respectively.

Ulster performance in that game was driven by an intensity usually associated with teams from the Southern Hemisphere, but that has also ben shown regularly by Leinster, and most recently by Munster in their demolition of Northampton Saints at Stadium MK. It is clear from these performances that the players have it in them to go up against anyone, and win, yet it is fair to say that it just has not happened regularly enough when they pull on the green shirt of Ireland.

As stated at the beginning of this piece, Kidneys reign began with glory, and the period since has seen sustained excellence and continued upward progression from 3 of the 4 Irish provinces. Yet at international level, if you look at tournament results, Ireland have declined year on year. From grand slam winners in 2009, to runners in up 2010 and then to third place in the 2011 6 Nations tournament. In each of the previous two competitions, there has been a standout, high intensity performance, such as the victory over England which denied them the grand slam last year, but there has been an inability to deliver performances consistently at that level.

The recent World Cup was no different. Ireland began with a less than convincing victory over the USA, before finding their one big performance to beat Australia, and also deny them even a losing bonus point. Wins against Russia and Italy followed, before being dumped out in the quarter final by the Welsh. Now at Celtic League and Heineken Cup level, Welsh regions victories over Irish provinces, particularly in key games, are rare, the Ospreys Final win over Leinster in 2010 being the exception So the question has to be asked why the levels of performance are not consistently replicated at international level.

The players are the same, with Connacht providing very few to the national squad, and there are plenty of occasions where provincial combinations have been used in the national shirt, so why this relative failure to perform on the biggest stage? The only conclusion that I can draw from what I have seen is that the answer has be Declan Kidney. He is clearly an intelligent man and a good coach, you do not win the trophies that he did with Munster if you are not, however something clearly is not right, as results reflect.

There are those who will argue that he does not select on form and favours the old guard (particularly from Munster) over younger more dynamic alternatives, yet his fans will point to the likes of Cian Healy and Sean O'Brien as examples of younger men that he has brought in to the side. There are also those who will argue that tactically he is stuck in the past, and sees the game through the same eyes that he did whilst at Munster between 2005 and 2008, and this hampers the team as the game has moved on even in that short time. Those who feel he is the right man for the job will counter this by highlighting those dynamic performances already mentioned against England and Australia, as evidence that he is trying to get the team to play in a modern, more dynamic way.

So what is the truth? Is Declan Kidney the right man to take Ireland on to the next level, and have them dominating Northern Hemisphere rugby in the same way that their provincial sides are dominating the club game? Or is he merely a false prophet, hiding behind success at Munster and initially with Ireland which was built more on the ability of the players at his disposal, rather than any great tactical nous or man management from him?

The next 8 weeks will hopefully give us some of the answers. Ireland will be without BOD, and Kidney will have to show that he is able to select the right man to fill his boots. Other than O'Driscoll, ireland have the majority of their best players available, and they are all in form, so there can be no excuses for not getting the best from them. In contrast England are an unknown quantity, France have a new coach and squad, and Wales will be missing key players through injury. If Ireland continue their downward trend since winning the 2009 6 Nations, and finish 4th or below in this competition, then surely Kidney's time must be up, as the answer to the question of what the truth is about him will be clear. On the other hand, Ireland may win the thing again, but I suspect the question will remain, great man manager, or just plain lucky at being Ireland coach at a time where the players at his disposal are better than their counterparts elsewhere in Europe.

Maybe we looked so clueless about our gameplan because we can’t survive without quick ball from the ruck, which we couldn’t get. Which is why Sexton and Murray kicked so much. Which, invited the Welsh attack onto us, which coupled with our drift defense allowed them to gain momentum. Our midfielders are decent, but they can be good IF we can generate quick ball and create mismatches/overlaps. Everything was too slow yesterday.

We didn't commit players to rucks because we were in fact preempting that Wales would get the ball and spread it. So we were doing some of Welsh tactics for them. Playing with fear will never loosen us up. Too much caution not enough in-your-face menace. That's an emotion not a physical level of fitness. We stood off Wales because the coaching team were cautious of what the Welsh might do...the Welsh thrived on the caution.

Surely it’s a tactical call on Kidneys behalf to play it like that.

Yes, I'm sure it is Mickado...but then, it's Kidney's tactics I'd like to leave behind us now.

I really think time for new thoughts on how to combine some great players and some great Provincial sides into one effective and consistently positive unit. There is far too much bad coaching being camouflaged as development thinking. For a time I was buying into the deal, I was giving them time to get a cohesive system working that would suit the players streaming into Provincial sides. It's not working and it's no longer development glitches.

Kidney can't adapt to the modern game, look how much kicking we did yesterday ro how much the provinces do it. Kicking was acceptable when the rules were in favour of the defence, now it's stupid to kick so much and give possession away.

What'll happen now is we'll scrape a few wins, play fantastic in one game and people will talke about us turningn a corner, it's been the same since '09.

Time for Kidney to move on. John Kirwan is available.

1F'sgonnagetya! wrote:
What'll happen now is we'll scrape a few wins, play fantastic in one game and people will talke about us turningn a corner, it's been the same since '09.

Yep. One big game is enough to keep the carnival on the road for one more season.

Some people are really delusional on here. It wasnt Kidney tactics that meant we had very little go forward ball yesterday which was forcing us to kick.

Its not kidneys tactics that meant our backline with quite a smattering of Leinster players werent very good (they missed Isa I think).

Its not really Kidneys tactics that mean the step up to international is proving difficult for some people.

He wont be going anywhere until the end of the 2013 season as his contract is still in place until then....so the discussions are irrelevent in terms of one more win etc.

God, its so depressing.

DOD wrote:Some people are really delusional on here. It wasnt Kidney tactics that meant we had very little go forward ball yesterday which was forcing us to kick.

Its not kidneys tactics that meant our backline with quite a smattering of Leinster players werent very good (they missed Isa I think).

Its not really Kidneys tactics that mean the step up to international is proving difficult for some people.

He wont be going anywhere until the end of the 2013 season as his contract is still in place until then....so the discussions are irrelevent in terms of one more win etc.

We were not forced to kick..

Seriously I don't know what game some people have been watching.

We were not going anywhere with the ball on occassions and Sexton kicked long and down the middle on these occassions. You are technically right in that we werent forced to kick but we werent doing anything with the ball either. I think that could be termed forced to kick.

However on the other hand (and a major failing on Sextons part) is that our kicking was woeful (forced or otherwise)

We weren't doing anything with the ball because we chose not to. We also were clueless in attack and had zero momentum. The complete opposite of wales.

Rory_Gallagher wrote:We weren't doing anything with the ball because we chose not to. We also were clueless in attack and had zero momentum. The complete opposite of wales.

Nothing to do with Wales pressurising us or their excellent defensive line or the fact that we were not getting any momentum due to us being knocked back then....well fair enough...but I dont agree with you.

DOD wrote:We were not going anywhere with the ball on occassions and Sexton kicked long and down the middle on these occassions. You are technically right in that we werent forced to kick but we werent doing anything with the ball either. I think that could be termed forced to kick.

However on the other hand (and a major failing on Sextons part) is that our kicking was woeful (forced or otherwise)

Begrudgingly I agree DOD .

We should compromise though and agree that it was O'Gara's poor restart and that wannabe Munsterman Bowes poor catch that cost us the game

I am only hanging around to see when the it was ROG's fault that we lost start up.

Well Wales had almost all the possession and we were the ones defending most of the time, problem is our centres couldn't deal with the big runners, which got worse as the game went on. And anytime we did get the ball we gave it straight back.

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Well Wales had almost all the possession and we were the ones defending most of the time, problem is our centres couldn't deal with the big runners, which got worse as the game went on. And anytime we did get the ball we gave it straight back.

when we got it we were in our half and under pressure,

Well giving it straight back didn't do us any favours. And we didn't only have the ball in our own half the entire game like. There were plenty of times where we just kicked it away when there was absolutely no need.

In the second half we held onto the ball more but we still only made momentum due to a couple of individual bits of endeavour and Welsh mistakes.

Most of the kicking was in the first half when we couldnt get the ball from Wales and when we did we were either turning it over or kicking due to the pressure we were under...

If Kidney (and his coaches - yep the SH ones too!) is responsible for nothing then he's not needed. So offload him then and save the money? The players look after themselves obviously.


Meanwhile Wales won because they realise a pattern when they see it and plan for it. So they're telling you that even if some Irish observers can't see the constant problems, they know what Kidney is going to do, regardless of players in any given position. They know that the flyhalf will kick, and that the scrumhalf will box kick, and that our backs will go left to right in slow motion. That we'll run into contact but we'll keep the ball with us as we do rather than offloading it.

What does a head coach do? Play solitare as the players devise the system and gameday plans?

Fly you can't blame Kidney because Bowe couldn't catch the ball and McFadden couldn't tackle North. If either of those had happened we'd have won but they didn't.

I'm not Kidney fan as, DOD will tell you, but we were all happy with the team selected beforehand.

DOD wrote:

Rory_Gallagher wrote:Well Wales had almost all the possession and we were the ones defending most of the time, problem is our centres couldn't deal with the big runners, which got worse as the game went on. And anytime we did get the ball we gave it straight back.

when we got it we were in our half and under pressure,

Then we should kick into touch and challange their weak lineout not kick to Halfpenny and North to run back at us and cause mayhem. We played to their strength instead of their weakness - thats madness

roddersm wrote:Fly you can't blame Kidney because Bowe couldn't catch the ball and McFadden couldn't tackle North. If either of those had happened we'd have won but they didn't.

I'm not Kidney fan as, DOD will tell you, but we were all happy with the team selected beforehand.

You can blame him though for picking out of form players (Bowe) and players who we all knew couldn't tackle (D'Arcy, McFadden at 13).

Rory_Gallagher wrote:

roddersm wrote:Fly you can't blame Kidney because Bowe couldn't catch the ball and McFadden couldn't tackle North. If either of those had happened we'd have won but they didn't.

I'm not Kidney fan as, DOD will tell you, but we were all happy with the team selected beforehand.

You can blame him though for picking out of form players (Bowe) and players who we all knew couldn't tackle (D'Arcy, McFadden at 13).

You could but Bowe was responsible for creating both tries and D'arcy and McFadden were as good defensively as any option we had available.

It's easy to criticise but not so easy to come up with the solution.

Who would you played in the centre instead Rory and who would you play this coming weekend.

I ask for a pretty simple solution; good tactics that involve our dangerous backs threatening the opposition, instead of giving away possession and kicking for territory. If we want to play that game, we might as well pick ROG.

Geoff whoever is played won't make a speck of difference because of the way Kidney wants Ireland to play. Playing ROG might suit us a bit more though in that regard. Otherwise I would play Wallace and Earls, to actually inject a bit of pace and creativity into the game for a change.

We don't have dangerous backs at this level, that's the problem and here's a tip................ROG is not the answer!....

If we play those sort of tactics, he is going to kick for territory better than anything. If you think I want us to play the way we are, think again. We have very dangerous backs Rodders, don't be daft. You really think we just have less talented backs than Wales? These irish players play week in week out against some of the players they played yesterday and do fine. Now why do players suddenly struggle so much on the international stage and play a totally different sort of game? It isn't rocket science.

We have some skillful backs Rory but not dangerous ones.

When were are dangermen yesterday? Apart from Bowe and Sexton we have no gamebreakers in the backs at this level.

We have no one on par with North, Roberts or Davies right now.

Roberts wasn't exactly brilliant yesterday, Davies and North were. And we have very dangerous backs rodders, proof of that yesterday was every single time Kearney got the ball. Trimble is a very dangerous player also, but barely got a chance. At the times he did, he threatened the welsh defence (plus he defended the three you mention brilliantly). Bowe hasn't been a threat this season anyway. Earls is very dangerous, scoring 5 tries at the world cup. Fitzgerald has been this season also. We have plenty of young potential backs coming through also.

Those three you mention for Wales are hardly supermen like. I think we are going to see that against some of the other teams Wales play, who know how to defend properly.

Rocket science this is not.

If you have two centres who are not defensively secure, and a back three who are good with ball in hand, you keep possession and try to move your opponents around to create gaps for your wingers.

You do not kick the ball to your opponents and invite their bigger, more physically powerful backs to run at your defensively weaker, and smaller centres.

If the team really were sent out with instruction to kick infield to the Wales back three, then Kidney needs to go.

Rory_Gallagher wrote:If we play those sort of tactics, he is going to kick for territory better than anything. If you think I want us to play the way we are, think again. We have very dangerous backs Rodders, don't be daft. You really think we just have less talented backs than Wales? These irish players play week in week out against some of the players they played yesterday and do fine. Now why do players suddenly struggle so much on the international stage and play a totally different sort of game? It isn't rocket science.

I can't believe I'm agreeing with Rodders, but Ireland's backs are not dangerous at this level. They are not big enough to run over anyone and they don't have the skills to get over the gainline. You may not approve of ROG, but Tommy Bowe & Shane Horgan for two have benefitted well from ROG's kicking from hand (and keeping Welsh honest (back) because his kicking was always a threat).

Trimble, McFadden or D'Arcy do not have any sort of a kicking game - things will improve a bit when BOD, Earls & Luke Fitz come back.

As for your point about playing week-in, week out against the same players - Munster have lost twice to the Ospreys this season. Leinster lost badly to them at the beginning of this season and that was with all their world cup players in NZ. The Ospreys also turned up in the RDS and beat Leinster in the Magners final the year before last, so its fair to say that the Welsh teams are not a walkover at club level.

They don't need a sort of kicking game, for goodness sake Sin that is the exact sort of tactics I am talking about. Munster lost those games, because they are playing the same game Ireland are. Kick for territory, kill the game. Wales know this, and Gatland is probably laughing at how we are still trying to do this as he just watches his big runners run it down the middle.

Are you saying that Earls isn't dangerous at this level, after all the fights you have been in about how good Earls is? Earls, Kearney, Fitz, Trimble, Bowe are all very very dangerous players. We aren't using any of them.

Ozzy3213 wrote:Rocket science this is not.

If you have two centres who are not defensively secure, and a back three who are good with ball in hand, you keep possession and try to move your opponents around to create gaps for your wingers.

You do not kick the ball to your opponents and invite their bigger, more physically powerful backs to run at your defensively weaker, and smaller centres.

If the team really were sent out with instruction to kick infield to the Wales back three, then Kidney needs to go.

Exactly!

Rory_Gallagher wrote:They don't need a sort of kicking game, for goodness sake Sin that is the exact sort of tactics I am talking about. Munster lost those games, because they are playing the same game Ireland are. Kick for territory, kill the game. Wales know this, and Gatland is probably laughing at how we are still trying to do this as he just watches his big runners run it down the middle.

Are you saying that Earls isn't dangerous at this level, after all the fights you have been in about how good Earls is? Earls, Kearney, Fitz, Trimble, Bowe are all very very dangerous players. We aren't using any of them.

You need a kicking game if you want to attack. Earls uses it quite a bit - remember him at fullback against England (I think) - he got Ireland into their 22 from our 22 with both fitz & Earls chasing. Think that is the game that Healy knocked on on their line.

You don't have to use your kicking game, but it keeps the oppo guessing as to how you are going to attack. (By the way, Tommy Bowe has hardly scored a try since the arrival of Sexton - he was top try scorer in the 6Ns in 2009).

Earls wasn't playing against Wales which is a pity because he is one of our few backs who can unlock defences and why he (along with Tommy Bowe) is one of the first names on the team sheet for the backs.

A kicking game is very useful if its done the right way. Most people might not realise this but New Zealand kick it a hell of a lot.

gowales wrote:A kicking game is very useful if its done the right way. Most people might not realise this but New Zealand kick it a hell of a lot.

Exactly - Queensland Reds use it a lot as well (the team that did most kicking won the league made the headlines).

Brian O'Driscoll didn't have one, but worked really hard on developing one and he is pretty good as well. Earls is superb. Dougie is useless!

Wales kick the ball down the middle for a reason. They want the ball in play. They don't want lineouts because they know we are better than them there. Simple. Not rocket science. Just basic tactical competence. Avoid our strength if possible. Play to their strength and our weakness.

Why did Ireland kick down the middle? Handing over the ball to the very big backs that are killing us, and declining to take as much advantage as possible of their weak lineout? Why didn't Sexton kick for touch near the end instead of going for a shot at goal from his own half? Idiotic We were tactically inept. Again. And when a team is tactically inept it's because the coach is tactically inept.

We are playing neanderthal rugby in attack and getting basic defensive tactics completely wrong. The coach is the problem.

Feckless Rogue wrote:Wales kick the ball down the middle for a reason. They want the ball in play. They don't want lineouts because they know we are better than them there. Simple. Not rocket science. Just basic tactical competence. Avoid our strength if possible. Play to their strength and our weakness.

Why did Ireland kick down the middle? Handing over the ball to the very big backs that are killing us, and declining to take as much advantage as possible of their weak lineout? Why didn't Sexton kick for touch near the end instead of going for a shot at goal from his own half? Idiotic We were tactically inept. Again. And when a team is tactically inept it's because the coach is tactically inept.

We are playing neanderthal rugby in attack and getting basic defensive tactics completely wrong. The coach is the problem.

+1.

My word, I'm getting the hang of this '+1' thing now. It really does save me a bundle in typing for myself!

Feckless Rogue wrote:Wales kick the ball down the middle for a reason. They want the ball in play. They don't want lineouts because they know we are better than them there. Simple. Not rocket science. Just basic tactical competence. Avoid our strength if possible. Play to their strength and our weakness.

Why did Ireland kick down the middle? Handing over the ball to the very big backs that are killing us, and declining to take as much advantage as possible of their weak lineout? Why didn't Sexton kick for touch near the end instead of going for a shot at goal from his own half? Idiotic We were tactically inept. Again. And when a team is tactically inept it's because the coach is tactically inept.

We are playing neanderthal rugby in attack and getting basic defensive tactics completely wrong. The coach is the problem.

God help us if the coach needs to say to Sexton: "Jonathan, try and kick to touch - our lineout is going well. When you kick down the middle, they only run back at you".

Brian O'Driscoll leadership was badly missed in the backs yesterday. And POC tippy-toeing around Johnny wasn't good either.

Unfortunately, Sexton has fulfilled his former promise. He doesn't have the top two inches when it comes to international rugby. Getting out of the safety cocoon of Leinster and going to France might have been the making of him. I hope Madigan's development is not held up to keep him in that cosy cocoon.

Sin é wrote:

Unfortunately, Sexton has fulfilled his former promise. He doesn't have the top two inches when it comes to international rugby. Getting out of the safety cocoon of Leinster and going to France might have been the making of him. I hope Madigan's development is not held up to keep him in that cosy cocoon.

Promise?

What promise is that?

The top two inches? You'd need a lot more than a few inches added on to get through the experience of playing in this Irish side as it's presently concocted. All players find it tough going, including our illustrious Brian O'Driscoll who often had to invent his own attacking game, because so often it wasn't being coached (Ireland history not just Kidney's tenure) and when he ran, he was on his own.

And finally, why would Sexton benefit from going to France when he plays (at present) with the top side in Europe? How high do you need to travel to play top level European rugby?

EOS was very inovative in the backline and this is shown by the type of play we did at the time with ROG at outhalf (shock horror). When the kickfest aspect of the game happened DK adapted it for the 09 team and since then he has changed the team and tried to get the team moving in that direction. So maybe he isn't good enough or maybe just maybe we don't actually have the world class players we think we do.

We have high numbers of the Intl team concentrated in the provincial teams that we obviously compete well in the HC. But the sum of the parts is just not that great. Just because Sexton looks the part against Bath doesn't translate automatically to the bigger stage.

Plus as Sin E said, I don't think DK actually did tell Sexton to kick from hand badly

I'm just glad Deccie wasnt lucky again on Sunday. Had we won that, it would have been a travesty and prolonged the agony.

Sexton plays to a game plan at Leinster. Then, he walks into the disorganised disaster that is Ireland. You could see it in his face. In fact, you could see it in most of their faces. The hesitancy was palpable. They dont believe in the Coach anymore. They will lie in front of camera and toe the Party Line.

Stop defending Uncle Deccie, Munster fans. His time is up. He is not good enough for this level and its effects are filtering down through the team. He's been found out. Gatland must be breaking his bollix laughing, every time he watches him make the same, basic - tactical mistakes.

Thank phook his only has 18 months to go. Thank Christ they didnt give him 4 years. If he gets hammered by France, the IRFU should review it. Beating Scotland, Italy (dunno if we will manage England) - is not good enough anymore. Hes clueless and a Man out of Time. His ideas belong to Munster in the 00's. Its sad to see. Hes a nice man, but nice will get us nowhere.

Sorry if the Truth hurts.

DOD wrote:
We have high numbers of the Intl team concentrated in the provincial teams that we obviously compete well in the HC. But the sum of the parts is just not that great. Just because Sexton looks the part against Bath doesn't translate automatically to the bigger stage.

Plus as Sin E said, I don't think DK actually did tell Sexton to kick from hand badly

Sexton kicked awfully. You won't get any blind-eyes comment from me on that one. But nope, when he insisted on kicking upfield, he wasn't looking for position on most occasions just..............well, kicking upfield and handing hard fought for ball (in the overall game context) back at a side that wanted to attack all day. That's just inane stuff. Now, if he's doing that all by himself, he needs a coach in his face telling him in no uncertain terms not to let it happen again.

But we'll see it again; guaranteed in this championship. We'll see it again, whether it's him or O'Gara. Then tell me that Kidney keeps seeing major tactical errors being made and allows them to go on and on...and on. It doesn't add up for me that it's always the players making the continuing errors and not the coaching team.

Sin é wrote:

God help us if the coach needs to say to Sexton: "Jonathan, try and kick to touch - our lineout is going well. When you kick down the middle, they only run back at you".

You're right Kidney shouldn't need to say that but since Sexton doesn't kick like that for Leinster we can safely assume that he didn't come up with the idea of kicking straight down the middle on his own.

Just look at the last 3 games against Wales (2 of which RoG was starting outhalf) and you see that in all 3 games Ireland kicked long and straight down the middle of the pitch,now that suggests one of two things.

1. It is a tactical plan by the coaches which they have tried and seen fail 3 times in a row which suggests incompetence.

2.The players are being told not to kick long and aimlessly down the middle yet are ignoring he orders of the coach which seems unlikely but also reflects badly on the coaching team.

More like stop defending poor players and poor decision making. The arguement is too simple regarding Kidney. Our decision making and execution in defence yesterday was simply amateur. Also it looks as if some of the players when taken out of their comfort zone of the provinces look quite ordinary.

Sextons restarts were top class.

One thing I don't get is when Halfpenny at the back we kicked loads of ball down his throat but when Hook, who can't catch a cold, was at 15 we didn't test him once.

Our kicking game wasn't great. Wales have better kickers and tend to beat us in the tactical kicking, even with ROG playing. Halfpenny, Priestland and Davies have huge kicking range.

DOD wrote:More like stop defending poor players and poor decision making. The arguement is too simple regarding Kidney. Our decision making and execution in defence yesterday was simply amateur. Also it looks as if some of the players when taken out of their comfort zone of the provinces look quite ordinary.

Will the long meaningless kicking away of possession continue? You answer yes, and that's a plan. You say no DOD, and time will prove you wrong.
If Kidney doesn't want it in the game he wants played (and that's his overall role) then he'd weed it out. That it's there means he sees it happen and has planned for it to happen. Or sees it happen and never rebukes. Either way, it's his issue.

Still doesn't explain incompetent defending, poor decision making and being bullied around the paddock. You like others pick up on one item and suddenly it was our downfall and therefore DKs fault

The truth is I fear somewhere in between but the truth often gets trampled with oversimplification and the need for simple soundbites to explain the situation. Its like the Germans fault

DOD wrote:Still doesn't explain incompetent defending, poor decision making and being bullied around the paddock. You like others pick up on one item and suddenly it was our downfall and therefore DKs fault

The truth is I fear somewhere in between but the truth often gets trampled with oversimplification and the need for simple soundbites to explain the situation. Its like the Germans fault

Actually, when you pick two centres who are known not to be able to defend, I think that makes it Kidney's fault. Don't know why anyone is surprised about that. Poor decision making and kicking for territory when that isn't the game we should be playing. Giving back possession unnecessarily. Doing what Kidney says and trying to "kill" the game. This all comes down to what Kidney wants Ireland to be. And it is no surprise players are playing differently/much worse than they do for their province.