THE FORMER Irish coach Murray Kidd has been appointed director of coaching at Sunday's. Well for next season. Kidd, from New Zealand, will spearhead a radical change of the coaching structures in the club.
The Cork-based club intends to form a limited company which will be run by a board of directors and two full time staff, a director of coaching, Kidd, and an administration director, Michael O'Rourke, a former regional manager with the National Irish Bank.
Kidd, had successfully coached Limerick side Garryowen before moving from Dooradoyle to Musgrave Park in the 1993-94 season where he brought the club from division two to division one and won the Munster Senior Cup.
He had agreed to continue with the Sunday's Well for the following year and had actually begun the season with them before Ireland offered him the job as national coach. Kidd was controversially supplanted as Irish coach by Englishman Brian Ashton following heavy Irish defeats at the hands of Italy and Western Samoa last December. Kidd had been in charge since October 1995 and was Ireland's first full time professional coach.
"Our aim is to get into division one and I think that's realistic. There are a couple of weaknesses to be addressed but they beat Con (Cork Constitution) the other day and in Munster that's serious. It was not a case of the end of the season or anything like that.
"I think in the very near future we'll see a premier league in Ireland and that's where we want to be. But the main priority now is to get the new company up and running and to get the club steady on a business footing.
"Although we're been completely amateur up until now a lot of the other clubs are paying players. Realistically we have to be competitive not only by the brand of rugby that we are capable of playing. We've got to interest players," said Kidd.
He continued to live in Cork throughout his tenure with Ireland and has effectively picked up where he left off four years ago. This year the club had been keeping in touch with the league leaders in the opening weeks, winning the first three of their league games of the AIL competition, before falling away from promotion contention in the New Year.
Sunday's Well represent the smallest membership of the Cork based clubs but part of Kidd's emit will be to build up the youth section which currently has a healthy membership in excess of 225. They will also carry out extensive improvements in the practise pitch area at Musgrave Park. Plans for drainage, floodlights and the provision of an all weather training pitch are also afoot.
The club believes that an elite competition will become part of Irish rugby within the next few years and their reforms now are an effort to make provision for such change. The club committee unanimously agreed to the major restructuring.
London Irish begin their quest for survival in the Courage League division one on Wednesday May 7th at 7.30 p.m. when they meet Coventry away in the first match of their home and away play off series. In the other game Bedford are at home to Bristol.
London Irish play their home leg at Sunbury four days later on Sunday May 11th. If they win both matches they are assured of retaining their division one status. It then comes down to points aggregate and if all is still even the number of trys scored will separate the sides.
