Ireland's famous defence coach Les Kiss is best known for introducing the choke tackle on the rugby world. Any profile that fails to mention this sees the offending writer drummed out of the NUJ.
Now we can add his propensity for incorporating 1980s board games into his coaching to the mix.
Like many board games, 'Guess Who?' has fallen out of favour in the 21st century. But Kiss has revived it to challenge his players on the attacking strengths of upcoming opponents. Rory Best gave this titbit to the Irish Examiner.
We’ve sat down before for a game of Guess Who? in analysis sessions with Les.
Everyone has a pen and paper, and he goes through maybe four or five points about an individual player from that week’s opposition.
The clues will consist of the traits of an unnamed player, who the players will have to name.
It will be things like ’favours a right-hand carry’, ’steps off his left’, and so on, and when you think you’ve got it you put the name down on the paper.
The pressure’s on for you to know the opposition as well as you can.
The slant towards perfectionism in the Irish camp since Joe Schmidt arrived in town creates it's own pressures on the players. Remember Fergus McFadden's comments after the South Africa game last November? 'From the second you arrive at an Ireland camp, you’re on edge,' says Best.
