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Ex-Ireland assistant Les Kiss gives his Six Nations title verdict
By Liam Heagney
Former Ireland assistant Les Kiss have given his verdict on his old team’s Guinness Six Nations title chances with head coach Andy Farrell on a sabbatical and missing the campaign. Farrell has temporarily stepped away at the helm to prepare for his head coaching role with the 2025 British and Irish Lions, leaving long-serving assistant Simon Easterby to step in as interim boss.
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Champions in 2023 and 2024, Ireland begin their attempt to win their first-ever third successive title when they welcome England to Dublin this Saturday, a match that Kiss will watch from a pub in Gloucester.
The Australian, who was an Ireland assistant in the Six Nations from 2009 to 2015, is currently in England on tour with the Queensland Reds ahead of their February 21 start to the Super Rugby Pacific at home to Moana Pasifika.
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The 60-year-old coach took over at the Reds in 2023 just weeks after the demise of London Irish and ahead of Friday’s tour-opening clash with Bristol, he predicted that an historic title hat-trick is on the horizon for Ireland.
Asked by RugbyPass for his Six Nations verdict, Kiss said: “That’s going to be tough. I have got a feeling that Ireland will get this three-peat. I watch Irish games all the time. I did 80-90 Tests with Ireland, so you are sort of attached to how they have been going.
“Andy has done fantastic. Simon Easterby has just been a rock solid man right through. I can only think that they will have what it takes to do it. I know people are thinking, ‘Andy’s not there’.
“Things will just roll the same way and the players will probably appreciate a slightly varying way to do it, even though there is stability from within with Simon being there.
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“France (in round four) is the big one they have to be wary of. They are the one that could possibly rock it. But then again, the first one, England at Lansdowne, it starts hard but if they get that they will be fine.”
The Reds’ two-match pre-season tour also features a trip to Ulster, the Irish club that Kiss was in charge of for more than two years following his 2015 Rugby World Cup finish with Ireland.
To prepare for that friendly on Ulster’s artificial surface, the Reds will train at Kingsholm following Friday’s match at Bristol and they have factored a pub visit in Gloucester into their plans so that they can watch Saturday’s 4:45pm Ireland-England kick-off.
“We have got a pub booked already,” enthused Kiss. “We play at Bristol on Friday and are going to drive to Gloucester and stay a night as they have a 3G pitch and then fly into Belfast after that.
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“We want to watch the Six Nations and experience it in a good old pub and a fireplace with maybe a beer in the hand, so it will be good. I’m ‘green’ all the way. I had a Guinness Monday night; hadn’t had a Guinness for a while. It was bloody beautiful. Just had one or two before dinner, and we’ll definitely have a couple on Saturday when we watch it.”
Ireland finished Six Nations champions in three of the seven campaigns Kiss was involved in, winning the Grand Slam under Declan Kidney in 2009 and then the title in 2014 and 2015 with Joe Schmidt in charge.
“The Six Nations is phenomenal,” enthused Kiss. “When I watch it, it is just so compelling. I’d love to be able to experience it again, for sure. I was talking about it Monday night with some of my (Reds) management team.
His standout memory? “The Six Nations when we won the Grand Slam, it’s hard to go past that. It was surreal, 61 years since that happened. That was fantastic. There were wonderful experiences with Declan and Joe. But beating the Wallabies at Eden Park (in Rugby World Cup 2011) was also pretty sweet.”
- Coming to RugbyPass next week… exclusive feature interview with Les Kiss on his Queensland Reds’ ambitions, the Wallabies, and his return to Ulster, the club that sacked him in 2018
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