| Personal information | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 9 December 1964 | |||||
| Playing information | ||||||
| Position | Wing | |||||
| Club | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| Fortitude Valley | ||||||
| 1986–1993 | North Sydney Bears | 100 | 29 | 38 | 0 | 192 |
| Total | 100 | 29 | 38 | 0 | 192 | |
| Representative | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 1986–1990 | Queensland | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| 1986 | Australia | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Coaching information | ||||||
| Club | ||||||
| Years | Team | Gms | W | D | L | W% |
| 1999 | London Broncos | 30 | 13 | 2 | 15 | 43 |
| As of 16 August 2011 | ||||||
| Source: RLP | ||||||
Les Kiss (born 9 December 1964) is an Australian former professional rugby league player in the New South Wales Rugby League, former rugby league coach and current rugby union coach.
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Kiss was a Past Brothers junior[1] who went on to play 100 first grade games in the NSWRL Premiership for the North Sydney Bears between 1986 and 1993. A handy goalkicker, he had an injury-restricted career, and retired in 1993. Les Kiss' career is nostalgically linked with the Wendy Matthews song "Let's Kiss", which was released in 1990 at the height of his playing days at North Sydney.
Les Kiss scored only 29 tries for Norths in his 100 games but despite not being the fastest winger, and with a best haul of 9 tries in a season (1986), he was considered to be one of the best defensive wingers in the Sydney competition. He also kicked 38 goals from 64 attempts (59.38%) for the Bears with his best season again being his debut year (1986) when he kicked 23/38 at 60.53%.
Les Kiss, originally from Queensland, first gained selection for The Maroons in Game 2 of the 1986 State of Origin series at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Playing on the wing, Kiss scored a try on debut in a losing side (NSW won the 1986 series 3-0) and he scored another in Game 3 at Lang Park.
Kiss was then selected to play for Australia in the second test against New Zealand at the Cricket Ground and retained his spot for the final game in Brisbane. Kiss' good form continued for the Bears and he was an easy selection for the 1986 Kangaroo Tour. Before the actual tour got underway in England, the Australians played a test against Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby. There Kiss scored his only two test tries in a 62-12 win. He was then selected for the first Ashes test against Great Britain at Old Trafford with the Aussie's winning 38-16 before an injury in a tour match put an end to his tour before the 2nd Test.
Les Kiss then had a wait of four years before he tasted representative football again. He was selected for games 1 and 2 of the 1990 Origin series. Queensland lost both games and Kiss was one of the players dropped for Game 3 (replaced by Willie Carne). In what turned out to be a brief representative career, Les Kiss played in 4 games for Queensland (all losses) and 4 games for Australia (all wins) scoring a total of 3 Origin and 2 Test tries.
Kiss is currently the defensive coach with the Ireland national rugby union team under head coach Declan Kidney and is being given much of the credit for improving their defensive abilities and masterminding their successful Grand Slam assault in 2009. Kiss' appointment was announced on 27 June 2008 [2] and was initially for three years but there is speculation that it may be extended after this inaugural success.
Kiss previously worked as an assistant rugby league coach for the London Broncos Super League club and then as joint head coach with former North Sydney team mate Tony Rea. In rugby union Kiss was prior to his current coaching position in Ireland an assistant coach with the New South Wales Waratahs [3] and also worked as a defence coach in South Africa.[4]
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