Leinster assistant coach David Knox has described the appointment of Declan Kidney as Irish Rugby coach, as ‘a big mistake’.
————————————————————————–
In an interview with the Irish Independent, Australian coach Knox is very critical of the rugby played by Kidney’s Munster, insisting their triumphs come at the expense of any style or flair.
‘The Munster people think he [Kidney] is a messiah but I just don’t understand that.
‘Munster get 30 points on the board by grinding away and when the other team is shot, they try and throw the ball around a bit. Then people say, what a great team. It’s rubbish.
The old Munster don’t play great thing. It always amuses me the way Leinster always go on about how great they play and how bad Munster play. I would rather Munster play like they do and get to Heineken cup finals then play like Leinster and think that a Magners League win is the same thing. When Leinster get to 4 Heineken Cup finals then we can talk.
0 Andrew May 14th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Ah who gives a shite about how some Aussie thinks our national team should play. This quote really says it all: ‘Munster get 30 points on the board by grinding away and when the other team is shot, they try and throw the ball around a bit. Then people say, what a great team.’
Well yeah, that would pretty much be the definition of a great team. I recall England winning a World Cup playing exactly like that. Beating Australia in the final.
0 John May 14th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
While some of the things Knox said were a bit OTT, a lot of what he says makes sense and people would do no harm to consider them. He raises interesting points about the use of D’Arcy, about O’Gara’s style of play and the question of whether Munster’s style of rugby can be taken to the international level.
The typical reaction of boarding up the windows lest we see something we don’t like isn’t going to do Irish rugby any good. Knox has over the past three years played a role in developing Fitzgerald, Kearney and Sexton from good schools players to the level they are at now, and he deserves some credit for that.