Knox attacks Kidney again
by Mark Doyle, 13 May 2008
Former Leinster backs coach David Knox has launched another withering attack on Munster boss Declan Kidney.
Kidney is set to quit the Heineken Cup finalists this summer to take over as the new Ireland boss and Knox savaged the Cork native’s appointment to the position in an interview which appeared in an Irish broadsheet on Tuesday morning.
Just hours after that article surfaced, Knox was interviewed on Newstalk radio to explain his views further.
Indeed, the Australian, who quit Leinster to return home earlier this year, lashed out at Kidney for the manner in which he left the same province in 2005.
Kidney explained at the time that he was leaving Leinster for 'family reasons' but Knox felt that that was a lamentable excuse.
“He wasn’t in Australia, he was two hours down the road," he argued. "He wasn’t in Australia or New Zealand. I reckon he’d get there [Cork] quicker than paramedics!
”It’s two hours away [Cork from Dublin]. What sort of reason is that? Let’s be serious about it.”
Knox also claimed that Ireland and Leinster captain Brian O’Driscoll became so disillusioned during Kidney’s spell in Donnybrook that the centre was ready to move overseas.
“I hate to bring Brian into it, but when I arrived here Brian said he was going to leave Leinster because he hadn’t learned anything the whole year under Declan Kidney, who, by the way, left halfway through the season,” he claimed.
”Three years later he’s [O’Driscoll] endorsing it [Kidney’s appointment]. I understand that because he’s going to have to play under that coach. But let’s not forget what he said three years ago.”
Knox continued: “He [O’Driscoll] can’t retire, can he? He can’t say ‘I’m not going to play’. What I’m trying to say is let’s not forget three years ago, when he was coaching Leinster and he left halfway through the year.”
Knox then attacked Munster boss Kidney for a perceived misuse of former All Blacks winger Doug Howlett, who joined the province earlier in the year.
“I reckon I’ve counted Doug Howlett touching the ball - and I’m not counting running back inside the quarter and kicking the ball up the field, or going back in counter attack - about ten or twenty times this season,” he stated.
”I cannot remember him touching the ball in a set play that’s gone through the backs like we use with Luke Fitzgerald and Rob Kearney and Shane Horgan. I think he’s scored two tries, and they’ve both been from turnover balls.
”This guy is probably one of the best finishers in the history of the game. He’s probably being paid 4/500,000 dollars. Are you getting value out of him?
”Yeah, you’re in the Heineken Cup and he scored a try at a crucial time. But let’s look at how he scored that try, by chasing a kick. I’m just saying that a player like that, if he was playing for Leinster, he would have scored 20 to 30 tries this season.”
Knox then turned his attention to Munster’s fly-half, Ronan O’Gara, a player he believes often struggles in high-pressure situations.
”It’s not coincidental that he plays well when you’ve got 80,000 people on your back,” he said.
”But I would say 40 percent of the time that he’s unable to do it in a real pressure situation. Like the World Cup.
”Everyone was saying before the World Cup Ronan O’Gara is in the same bracket as Daniel Carter, who’s the best player in the world. Well, in the World Cup we saw how far off the ball that was.”
Knox claimed, though, that O'Gara and many of his fellow Ireland internationals had been severely restricted by the game plan that was forced upon them by former head coach Eddie O'Sullivan during the World Cup.
”I didn’t see any evolvement in their play. It was exactly the same thing,” he argued.
”It was the forwards trying to go as far as you can and then try to give the ball to Gordon D’Arcy or Brian O’Driscoll. They just played the same way. And I think teams worked that out.
”You had to be aggressive with their forward pack, stop their go-forward. Then you just man-mark O’Driscoll and D’Arcy.
”D’Arcy’s not going to pass the ball too much because he’s been instructed to run into a brick wall and poor Brian O’Driscoll’s on his own, supposed to create miracles, which he did against Argentina. I think Ireland would have lost that game 40-0 if Brian O’Driscoll didn’t play.
”But I think they needed someone to look at the game and use a bit more decoy on these plays, use a few plays. But they just did nothing....
”I wasn’t in the dressing room but I could tell by the way Gordon played. I don’t think he released a ball in the whole World Cup. I don’t think he released a ball in the 6 Nations that I’ve been here for.
”He was just running, and successfully 50 percent of the time. When it got to the World Cup I didn’t see him make a break. I didn’t see him pass the ball too much so I’m assuming he was instructed as such.”