Declan Kidney (born 20 October 1959) is an Irish rugby union coach. He was the head coach of the

Ireland national rugby union team The Ireland national rugby union team is the men's representative national team for the island of Ireland in rugby union. The team represents both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Ireland competes in the annual Six Nations Cha ...

from 2008 to 2013, where he won the 2009 Six Nations with a Grand Slam, winning the 2009 IRB Coach of the Year award. He was also the head coach at

Munster Munster ( gle, an Mhumhain or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" ( ga, rí ruirech). Following th ...

, leading them to four Heineken Cup finals, winning twice in 2006 and 2008. He is currently Director of Rugby at

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club which competes in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union. The club has also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. While ...

Early life

Kidney was born in

Bishopstown Bishopstown () is located in the civil parish of St. Finbar's, Barony of Cork, County Cork, Ireland. It is a southwestern suburb of Cork and is made-up of the townlands of Ballineaspigbeg and Ballineaspigmore (sometimes spelled Ballinaspigmore) ...

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns ar ...

. He played rugby for UCC and later for Dolphin RFC. He studied to become an accounting and mathematics teacher, in which position he was appointed at

Presentation Brothers College, Cork Presentation Brothers College (PBC Cork) ( ga, Coláiste na Toirbhirte; colloquially known as Pres) is a Catholic, boys, private fee-paying secondary school in Cork (city), Cork, Ireland. Presentation Brothers College is currently ranked as the n ...

, and later became the career guidance officer. He took on the role of rugby coach at the school, where he had initial success as coach of the junior and later senior side.

Coaching career

Youth and professional

Following his coaching of the Irish Schools team, Kidney coached the Ireland under 19s team which won the FIRA World Cup in 1998. After the 1998 Tournament he joined

. His initial stint at Munster ended in 2002, when he left to become Ireland's assistant coach. He was replaced at Munster by

Alan Gaffney Alan Gaffney is an Australian-born rugby coach, currently The National Elite Programmes Coach for Australia He is a former player who played over 200 games with the Randwick Rugby Club Sydney, of which he was elected a life member in 1993. Ga ...

. In the summer of 2004, he became coach at

Newport Gwent Dragons Dragons RFC ( cy, Dreigiau) are one of the four professional rugby union regional teams in Wales. They are owned by the Welsh Rugby Union and play their home games at Rodney Parade, Newport and at other grounds around the region. They play in t ...

. However, in August 2004, after only 3 months in the job, he left to join

Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ir ...

. He rejoined Munster in 2005, winning the

Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Heineken Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

in his first season back, after losing in both 2000 and 2002 in the final. After this win, Kidney was awarded the 2006 ''Philips Sports Manager of the Year'' award, and on 24 May 2008, his Munster squad won the

once again.

Ireland (2008–2013)

He coached the Irish team to the Grand Slam and Triple Crown in 2009, in his first year as head coach. In June 2009, coached

Ireland Wolfhounds The Ireland Wolfhounds (formerly Ireland A and Ireland B) are the second national rugby union team of Ireland, behind the Ireland national team. They previously competed in the Churchill Cup together with the England Saxons, the national team ...

, then known as Ireland A, to their first

Churchill Cup The Churchill Cup was an annual rugby union tournament, held in June, contested by representative men's (and formerly women's) teams from Canada, England, the United States, and other invited teams (originally one and later three) from a wide arr ...

. He was awarded the 2009

IRB Coach of the Year The World Rugby Coach of the Year is awarded by the World Rugby in the autumn each year. From 2004 to 2007, the award was called the IRB International Coach of the Year. List of winners List of winners by coach, team and nationality ...

. He was also awarded the 2009 ''Phillips Manager of the Year'' for the third time in four years, beating

Brian Cody Brian Cody (born 12 July 1954) is an Irish former hurling manager and player and retired schoolmaster. He managed the senior Kilkenny county team between 1998 and 2022, becoming the county's longest-serving manager and most successful in t ...

John Oxx John M. Oxx (born 14 July 1950) is a retired Irish trainer of thoroughbred racehorses. By the end of the 2009 season Oxx had trained 35 Group One winners over his career, including the winners of 11 Classic races. He is best known as the train ...

and Giovanni Trapattoni to the title. Ireland's international fortunes declined after 2009 with a poor string of results, which was the antithesis to the success of its provinces

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label=Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

, Connacht and

. In 2011 and Kidney led Ireland to the

quarter finals A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final mat ...

of the

2011 Rugby World Cup The 2011 Rugby World Cup was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japan and South ...

, at which Ireland recorded their first-ever clean sweep of their pool, including Ireland's first-ever win at a world cup against a major rugby nation (Australia). A series of poor game management decisions by senior players saw them defeated 22–10 by

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. Ireland suffered their heaviest defeat in history in 2012 going down by 60–0 against New Zealand, and by 2013 had slipped to their worst IRB World Ranking of ninth when Ireland suffered a string of injuries to key players, the likes of which Ireland has not suffered previously nor suffered since. After finishing fifth in the

2013 Six Nations Championship The 2013 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2013 RBS 6 Nations because of the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 14th series of the Six Nations Championship, the annual northern hemisphere rugby union championship ...

, which included an historic loss to Italy, the

IRFU The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) ( ga, Cumann Rugbaí na hÉireann) is the body managing rugby union in the island of Ireland (both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). The IRFU has its head office at 10/12 Lansdowne Road and home ...

, on 2 April 2013, decided to terminate Kidney's contract. Kidney finished with a record of 28 wins, 3 draws and 22 defeats.

UCC

In August 2013, Kidney was appointed as the Director of Sport and Physical Activity at UCC.

London Irish

Kidney joined

in March 2018 as technical consultant. The roles reunited Kidney with Les Kiss who was appointed head coach on the same day. He later became Director of Rugby on 22 May 2018 following the resignation of Nick Kennedy.

Honours

;Munster * Celtic League (1): 2002/03 *

(2): 2005/06, 2007/08 ;Ireland * IRB

Under 19 Rugby World Championship The IRB under-19 Rugby World Cup was the premier tournament for male rugby union players under the age of 19 organised by the sports governing body the International Rugby Board (IRB) annually from 2004 until 2007. Both it and the Under 21 Rugby Wo ...

(1) 1998 *

(1):

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

* Triple Crown (1):

Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) is an annual international men's rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The current champions ar ...

(1):

(Grand Slam) ;Individual * IRB International Coach of the Year 2009 ;London Irish *

RFU Championship The RFU Championship is an English rugby union competition comprising twelve clubs. It is the second level of men’s English rugby and is played by both professional and semi-professional players. The competition has existed since 1987, whe ...

(1) 2018-19 RFU Championship

References

External links

BBC – Kidney in new IRFU Role
Sporting Life * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kidney, Declan 1959 births Living people Rugby union players from County Cork Irish rugby union players Irish schoolteachers Irish rugby union coaches Munster Rugby non-playing staff Leinster Rugby non-playing staff World Rugby Awards winners Ireland national rugby union team coaches Dragons RFC coaches People educated at Presentation Brothers College, Cork