Posted 31 March 2011
Ireland rugby coach, Kidney honoured by UCD Law Society
Declan Kidney, the Head Coach of the Irish Rugby Team, has been awarded an Honorary Life Membership of the UCD Law Society.
Speaking at University College Dublin before accepting the honour, Kidney told the hundreds of students who turned out to see him that “there are no promises in life, but anything is possible.”
Pictured far right: Declan Kidney, Image courtesy of IrishRugby.ie
“If you hit a few stumbling blocks...you just pull up your socks and go again,” he said.
While reminiscing on some of the team’s performance highs and lows, he told students that “things balance out, you just have to go the rough with the smooth.”
“If you just measure yourself by winning trophies, that can be false,” he said. “You have to pitch yourself to be as good as you can be, and if that brings in trophies then all the better.”
“If you work with good people, anything is possible.”
“The role of a manager is to help the players to be as good as they can be. And to coordinate things,” he said.
“The players trust you to do the right things by them. So as a coach it's very important for you to trust the players."
When asked if he was aware of the lift that sport can give people during times of economic difficulty, Kidney told the students that “the team does everything they can to try to give the Irish people something to cheer about on a Saturday.”
He said he was genuinely touched to be made and honorary life member of the UCD Law Society as it meant more when not everything had gone right this season.
Declan Kidney is one of the most respected and decorated coaches in Ireland and has previously coached the Ireland Schools and Under-19 teams. In 2009, he took the role of Head Coach for the Ireland team, and guided the squad to a famous Grand Slam victory, Ireland's first since 1948.
(Produced by UCD University Relations)
