The former Munster and Irish rugby coach and Cork man Declan Kidney is now coaching the London club, London Irish and has give huge praise to one of his former players with Ireland and now his current out-half at the London club. London Irish currently lie seventh in the Gallagher Premiership in England. Level on points with Newcastle Falcons and eleven points behind leaders Bristol Bears
Paddy Jackson joined London Irish in 2019, after spending a season in the Top 14 with Perpignan, and has played a big role in the Exiles’ revival. London Irish also have another former teammate of Paddy Jackson’s in Carlow man Sean O’Brien. The two would have played together in their time with Ireland in either the Six Nations, the November internationals or any of the summer tours. Jackson would have also come up against the ‘Tullow Tank’ in many a Leinster vs Ulster match.
Declan Kidney when asked about the former Ulster Out-half said;
“Paddy is a very good rugby player. We knew that and we wanted to bring in an out-half with experience,” Kidney said.
“Both myself and Les [Kiss, London Irish head coach and former Ulster head coach] knew him and we asked him to join us. He has joined in and I suppose he is not doing anything we didn’t think he was well capable of.
“It seems a very bland answer but you probably wouldn’t expect anything else from me on that particular topic. He is an international 10, he is an international quality 10. That is not in dispute.
“He is just in his prime and he is playing accordingly, I think. He is a good player, yeah, but there is nothing he is doing that I didn’t think he was capable of doing.”
“There was probably a couple of other areas he can add to his bow then too. I think his playing was truncated,” Kidney explained.
“He was at full-back a lot when he was at Perpignan and then when he was with us as well then too, we had Stephen Myler with us and we had a bit of 15/10.
“But there is a longer run there now at 10 and he is getting into the grove of that there more and more each game.”