Declan Kidney is the head coach at the Munster rugby union team, and will become the next Ireland head coach following the summer test series.[1]
Kidney trained as a teacher, in which position he was appointed at Presentation Brothers College, Cork, 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.[2]
Following his coaching of the Irish Schools team, Kidney coached the Ireland under 19's team which won the FIRA World Cup in 1998. [3] After this Tournament he joined Munster. [4]
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. [5] He rejoined Munster in 2005, winning the Heineken Cup in his first season back, after losing in both 2000 and 2002 in the final stage. [6][7] After this win, Kidney went on to win 2006 Philips Sports Manager of the Year award. [8]