SIX NATIONS:Though they have crossed paths many times, this is only the second time Declan Kidney and Warren Gatland go head-to-head. GERRY THORNLEYlooks at their history on the pitch
TODAY’S CLIMAX is about the players first and foremost, as the coaches would be the first to maintain, yet the two savviest tickets in the championship will have been burning the midnight oil all week. At their head are two of the most multi-decorated, trophy-winning head coaches.
Between them have won a Grand Slam, three Heineken Cups and reached two more finals, won a European Challenge Cup, an Under-19 World Cup, three English Premierships, a New Zealand Provincial title, the Ranfury Shield, promotions in the AIL, a Six Nations A title, an under-21 Triple Crown and a schools Triple Crown. Not a bad little haul really, and they’re not finished yet, with one of them set to scoop another title or two today.
Declan Kidney and Warren Gatland also have a similar age profile, and they were both teachers before the game went professional in 1996. Gatland had already been a head coach at Galwegians for three seasons – 1989-1992 – before returning to New Zealand, but after Eddie O’Sullivan had unexpectedly resigned as Connacht coach, Gatland took a call from Billy Glynn on a Thursday in September. He agreed to take over and linked up with the squad on a pre-season tour in Sweden the following Monday.
After Gatland jumped aboard the full-time coaching game when taking charge at Connacht, Kidney followed him by becoming Munster’s director of rugby a year later, and neither have hopped off for very long since then. The Corkman had won five Munster Schools Junior Cups and three Senior Cups at PBC Cork, as well as leading the Irish Schools to a two-point defeat to New Zealand in 1992 and a Triple Crown in 1993 before a two-year stint with Dolphin, culminating in promotion from Division Two of the AIL.
Their paths have frequently crossed ever since. They would have sat in on many a meeting together and even worked together briefly. Yet though Gatland has coached in Ireland for eight years, and for 13 years in the Northern Hemisphere, this will only be the second time that Kidney and Gatland have gone head to head as head coaches, per se.
The first was at the start of that 1997-1998 season, in the first round of interpros, on Saturday, August 16th at the Sportsground. The sun was in the air, the Sportsground was a lovely, dark lush shade of green, optimism was high in Brian Ashton’s first full season as Irish coach, but Munster won an anti-climactic and fairly non -descript game by 29-9, featuring tries by Mick Galwey and man of the match Eddie Halvey.
“We were very tentative. There seemed to be a fear of making a mistake,” said Kidney afterwards. His coaching partner Niall O’Donovan admitting: “It wasn’t the greatest game in the world.” As for Gatland, he said: “I’m very disappointed. There were too many mistakes.”
Connacht would go on to reach the European Challenge Cup quarter-finals that year, qualifying from their pool by dint of two stunning wins over a star-studded Northampton side featuring five Lions from the previous summer and coached by Ian McGeechan. By the following February, then 34, Gatland had taken over as Irish coach after Ashton’s sudden resignation.
Kidney coached the Irish A team while Gatland was coach of the senior team, so they would have spent time on the same pitch for combined training sessions, and when Gatland was fired by the IRFU in December 2001, Kidney was co-opted onto the new ticket as assistant to Eddie O’Sullivan. There Kidney remained for two more full seasons, thereby missing Wasps’ Heineken Cup semi-final win over Munster in 2004 en route to the London club lifting the trophy.
The following season, when Kidney was with Leinster, they didn’t meet and by the time Kidney returned to the helm with Munster, winning the first of his Heineken Cups with them, Gatland was back in Waikato.
The following year Gatland led his home-town province to their first Air New Zealand Cup since he played with them in 1992, and last year he led Wales to the Grand Slam while Kidney led Munster to a second Heineken Cup.
So, finally, they meet again, over 11-and-a-half years since their one and only previous meeting.
Neither could actually remember being directly opposed to each other before.
“Warren was coaching Ireland when I was coaching Munster,” recalled Kidney last Tuesday.
“We’d know one another because of that for over 10 years now. He’s a good man, smashing record, nice fella.”
“I’ve met him on quite a few occasions,” said Gatland, a day later. “He’s got a dry sense of humour, he doesn’t seem to take himself or things too seriously off the pitch. We’re reasonably alike in some ways.”
Hmm, well, not this week they haven’t been. At the start, for sure, they were quite alike, but with success Gatland has become more self-confident about speaking in public and quite enjoys playing out the kind of mind games in match weeks which Kidney wouldn’t even countenance. Kidney’s motto? Give them nothing. Gatland’s? Give them plenty. But Gatland’s bluster will have little relevance come 5.30pm this evening.
Ask Kidney what’s the striking thing about Gatland’s teams and he responds: “Success. You look at his track record, it’s huge. He’s done Heineken Cups, he’s done Premierships, he’s done Grand Slams, and that’s in the Northern Hemisphere, what’s he won in the Southern Hemisphere? An NPC. Did he win a Ranfury (Shield)?” Yeah. “That’s okay.”
Gatland is similarly respectful. “You can’t deny what he’s achieved as a coach at all levels, whether under-19s, under-20s, Munster, A teams, Ireland – you’ve got to respect that. What he’s been good at – and one of the things that’s been good for me and learning that – is getting good people around him. People that he trusts.
“He’s very good at empowering players, and they buy into the culture that he creates. They seem to be happy and enjoying themselves. I’ve a lot of respect for what Declan has achieved.”
Indeed, further to that point, Kidney once sounded out Gatland about joining him on the Munster ticket about three or four years ago, on the old “nothing ventured, nothing gained” philosophy.
The Kiwi was coaching Waikato at the time and politely declined, but was suitably impressed that Kidney had the self-confidence and ambition to ask.
“He’s not afraid for people to come in and ask for things, or new voices in, and I think that’s been a huge part of his success.”
And the trademarks of a Kidney side? “They’re never easy to beat,” says Gatland, and, right enough, you think of how seldom a side coached by Kidney ever rolls over and has their bellies tickled.
“They never give in, and probably achieve results sometimes against the odds. Coming from behind with 20 minutes to go away from home with Munster, or whether they have to win by a certain number of points to reach the play-offs and stuff, that’s usually what they achieve.”
As for the traits to a team coached by Gatland, Kidney says: “His teams play good rugby, they get really in your face, himself and Shaun Edwards have been a combination now for quite some time. He gave some of our players their first go on the international stage, and so he’ll know them very well.”
And the match-winner that day for Munster? A certain 20-year-old by the name of Ronan O’Gara, who scored a try, drop goal, conversion and three penalties in a 19-point haul on his competitive debut for Munster alongside another debutant, David Wallace. Maybe it’s a promising augury, and a repeat of sorts would do nicely.
FACE OFF
Warren Gatland
Galwegians: 1989-90 to 1991-92. Won promotion to AIL Division Two.
Connacht: 1996-97, '97-98: Reached quarter-finals of European Challenge Cup.
Ireland head coach: Feb 1998 to Dec '01.
Wasps head coach: Won three successive Premiership titles (2003-05), European Challenge Cup (2003), Heineken Cup (2004).
Waikato head coach 2005-06, 2006-07: Won Air New Zealand Cup and Ranfurly Shield.
Wales head coach (Nov 2007):Won Grand Slam (2008).
Declan Kidney
Presentation Brothers Cork: Munster Junior Cup wins – 1983-1986 and 1988. Senior Cup wins – 1991-1993. Dolphin – Promotion from Div 2 of AIB League 1995-1996.
Ireland Schools:Triple Crown 1993.
Ireland Under-19s:FIRA World Cup, 1998.
Ireland A:Grand Slam, 2000.
Munster: (1998-2002 and 2005-2008) Heineken Cup winners 2005-06; finalists 2007-08; runners-up 1999-00 and 2001-02; semi-finalists 2000-01; quarter-finalists 1998-99; 2006-07).
Leinster: (2004-05) Heineken Cup quarter-finalists.
Ireland: Assistant coach (2001-2003). Head coach (2008).
