Declan Kidney does not need to be a qualified maths teacher to appreciate London Irish’s number in the Premiership is all but up. On Saturday Ireland’s 2009 grand slam winning coach takes charge of his first match since being appointed Exiles’ technical consultant but victory over a Gloucester side that is starting to live up to its reputation for fickleness would do little more than delay what has long seemed the club’s destiny, relegation.
The 58-year old Kidney, along with his defence coach during his Ireland days, Les Kiss, has not been appointed to pull off a rugby miracle with Irish 12 points adrift of Worcester at the bottom of the table with five rounds to go – although he insisted at his first round of media interviews that staying up was achievable – but with the future in mind. The Exiles, who have spent only one season outside the Premiership since it was formed in 1997, are fighting for their professional future.
A number of Premiership clubs want to ring-fence the top flight and end the system of promotion from the Championship. The former Rugby Football Union chief executive Ian Ritchie was on Thursday appointed Premiership Rugby’s chairman with a brief to end relegation. A man who showed his diplomatic skill during the drawn-out and often acrimonious negotiations over the future of the European Cup as the clubs took control of the tournament from the unions will again be sidestepping mines as he takes to the battlefield.
Championship clubs have long regarded the Premiership as a 13-club tournament in which one had an annual holiday, but an end to relegation would leave the club that finished bottom that season clutching a one-way ticket. Irish, who benefited 20 years ago when Richmond and London Scottish were both subsumed into the Exiles after their financial backers pulled out, fear that clubs would prefer Bristol to make up the 12.
Irish, the only club in the top flight that does not own its own ground, were approached this season and asked to sell their Premiership shares. The club refused to sign what would have been a suicide note, but faces being isolated as clubs square up to the RFU over a number of issues – the length of the season and relegation leading the agenda. There will be no changes agreed by the professional game board without the union’s approval, which is where Ritchie comes in. There have been compromise proposals such as a 14-or even 13-strong Premiership, but that would spread central income more thinly.
Someone, Irish or Bristol, will lose out. If Irish are back in the Championship next season, they may have one opportunity to get back up and may find entry criteria change so renting a ground, as they do in Reading, is a reason to keep a side down: ring-fencing could come in the form of an end to promotion in practice rather than theory. So while Kidney and Kiss have been appointed on three-year contracts to improve the club on the field, the Exiles want to be back in London from 2019, in either Brentford or Wimbledon.
“This is a club with massive potential,” said Kidney, who after leaving Ireland in 2013 left professional rugby to work for University College Cork. “Les and I will come at things from a different angle and try to make it work for the team. Everyone looks for the secret formula of success: when you look at the likes of Saracens and Exeter they have a fantastic team spirit from the beginning. We want people who want to play for the club and we will take it from there.”
Exeter, the champions and leaders, and Saracens, the European Champions Cup holders, visit Reading next month. Irish’s other two matches are away to Harlequins, who they defeated with a bonus point on the opening day of the season, and Bath. The appointment of Kidney prompted internal upheaval with Brendan Venter leaving the coaching team immediately, followed a week later by the director of rugby, Nick Kennedy, who salvaged the club’s academy after the RFU warned it faced losing it and oversaw promotion last season.
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Irish wanted Kennedy to work under Kidney, but after taking time to weigh up his position, he decided not to take what would effectively have been a demotion. But for the manoeuvrings of Premiership Rugby, Kennedy would probably have been given time to mature his policy of bringing through young players, but the Exiles do not have time and in Kidney, who guided Munster to two European Cup triumphs before taking Ireland to their second grand slam 61 years after the first, they have an experienced winner.
“It is an ideal job for Declan,” the former Ireland flanker Alan Quinlan said. “London Irish have lacked a bit of direction and have probably spent money in the wrong ways. There has been uncertaintyat the club and they have struggled for a few years. They now have a man who will add structure and I am delighted he is back in the game.”
It is not the first time Kidney has taken charge of a side outside his native Ireland. In 2004 he was appointed head coach of a Welsh region, the Dragons, but left for the same position at Leinster before the season started. He is at Irish for the long haul and his ambition is to return the club to the top half of the Premiership.
“I am under no illusions that this is going to be a challenging job,” he said. “English club rugby is very competitive and it will take us several years to cement a place at the top end of the Premiership. With the right structures in place, it becomes a realistic ambition.” The rugby battle, though, is only the half of it.