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JOE SCHMIDT WILL deservedly continue to get the vast majority of the plaudits, but assistant Les Kiss remains an equally essential part of Ireland’s coaching staff.
His name isn’t flashed in the headlines regularly, but the Irish players and Schmidt are fully aware of the importance of the former Australian rugby league international to their current run of success.
Schmidt is reliant on Kiss’ expertise in the Ireland set-up. Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO
Kiss is the defence coach for this Ireland team, having branched into an expanded role that included attack in Declan Kidney’s final days in charge of Ireland. Exclusively in charge of the ‘D’ since Schmidt took over, Kiss has been getting more excellent results.
Ireland conceded the fewest points and fewest tries in both the 2014 and 2015 Six Nations and even beyond the statistics, their defensive effort has been consistently strong.
As the World Cup approaches, and with it the deadline for naming the final 31-man squads, players are being assessed as rigorously in their defensive skills as in attack. Kiss may hold the key to some of the most difficult personnel decisions before 31 August.
“First and foremost, defence is about how you contribute to the system,” says Kiss of what he will be looking for in defence from the Ireland players against Scotland in Dublin today (KO 17.00).
‘We’re expecting a fairly torrid examination. I know they’ve got a new flanker in the boy Hugh Blake from New Zealand, he looks very handy. He can actually play tight but can give an extra pass, like the other guy Blair Cowan, so they have this ability to be able to attack really right but expand it very quickly.
“If we’re not a good defensive team we will get hurt. If we have people just working on their own, we will find ourselves in trouble. That challenge for the playing group is to make sure they fit into the system, make sure they contribute in a way that makes us a difficult team to play against.”
The concession of three tries against Wales last weekend didn’t sit well with Kiss and Schmidt, whatever about the impression made by several players with ball in hand at the Millennium Stadium.
Kiss is an astute observer of the game. Source: Presseye/Matt Mackey/INPHO
Though Kiss points out that there were good things about Ireland’s defence in Cardiff too, he is adamant the defensive shift needs to be greatly improved against the Scots and over the next month.
“To tell you the truth, there was some really nice things there but I think if we deliver that again we could get beaten by a team that was really switched on,” says Kiss. “Ultimately, we had the run of the game probably, controlled it, and Wales did make a lot of errors.
“So we didn’t get exposed, but I did identify some areas where we would get exposed against a better, cohesive effort from an opposition team.