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 Champio ...

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 ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

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

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club that most recently competed in the Premiership Rugby, Premiership, the top division of rugby union in England. The club also participated in the European Rugby Champions Cup, European Champion ...

Early life

Kidney was born in Bishopstown,

County Cork County Cork () is the largest and the southernmost Counties of Ireland, county of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, named after the city of Cork (city), Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster ...

. He played rugby for UCC and later for

Dolphin RFC Dolphin Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club in Cork (city), Cork. The senior team play in 2024–25 All-Ireland League (rugby union)#Division 2C, Division 2C of the All-Ireland League (rugby union), All-Ireland League. In the 2023-24 sea ...

. 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) (; colloquially known as Pres) is a Catholic, boys, private fee-paying secondary school in Cork (city), Cork, Ireland. As of 2020, Presentation Brothers College was ranked as the top boys secondary sc ...

, 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. In the summer of 2004, he became coach at Newport Gwent Dragons. However, in August 2004, after only 3 months in the job, he left to join

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

. He rejoined Munster in 2005, winning the

Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Investec 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, 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 national rugby union team, Canada, England Saxons, England, the United States national rugby union te ...

. He was awarded the 2009 IRB Coach of the Year. He was also awarded the 2009 ''Phillips Manager of the Year'' for the third time in four years, beating Brian Cody, John Oxx and

Giovanni Trapattoni Giovanni Trapattoni (; born 17 March 1939), popularly nicknamed "Trap" or "Il Trap", is an Italian former Association football, football manager and former player, considered the most successful club coach of Football in Italy, Italian football ...

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 (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

Connacht Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, C ...

and

. In 2011 Kidney led Ireland to the quarter finals 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 World Rugby, International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japa ...

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

. 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, 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 (1) 1998 *

(1):

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

* Triple Crown (1):

Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Six Nations, branded as Guinness M6N) is an annual international rugby union competition by the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. It is the oldest sports tournament conte ...

(1):

(Grand Slam) ;Individual *

IRB International Coach of the Year The World Rugby Coach of the Year is awarded by 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 Statistics References External links

* {{DEFAULTSO ...

2009 ;London Irish * RFU Championship (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