Kidney was born in Ballincollig, County Cork. He played rugby for UCC and later for Dolphin RFC. He studied to become an accounting and mathematics teacher, in which position he was appointed at Presentation Brothers College, Cork, and later became the career guidance officer. He took on the role of rugby coach at the school, where he had initial success as coach of the junior and later senior side.
Coaching career
Youth and professional
Following his coaching of the Irish Schools team, Kidney coached the Ireland under 19s team which won the FIRA World Cup in 1998. After the 1998 Tournament he joined Munster. His initial stint at Munster ended in 2002, when he left to become Ireland's assistant coach. He was replaced at Munster by Alan Gaffney. In the summer of 2004, he became coach at Newport Gwent Dragons. However, in August 2004, after only 3 months in the job, he left to join Leinster. He rejoined Munster in 2005, winning the Heineken Cup in his first season back, after losing in both 2000 and 2002 in the final. After this win, Kidney was awarded the 2006 Philips Sports Manager of the Year award, and on 24 May 2008, his Munster squad won the Heineken Cup once again.
Ireland (2008–2013)
Kidney was succeeded as Munster coach in July 2008 by Tony McGahan, when Kidney became the Irish national coach. He coached the Irish team to the Grand Slam and Triple Crown in 2009, in his first year as head coach. In June 2009, coached Ireland Wolfhounds, then known as Ireland A, to their first Churchill Cup. He was awarded the 2009 IRBCoach of the Year. He was also awarded the 2009 Phillips Manager of the Year for the third time in four years, beating Brian Cody, John Oxx and Giovanni Trapattoni to the title. Ireland's international fortunes declined after 2009 with a poor string of results, which was the antithesis to the success of its provinces Leinster, Ulster, Connacht and Munster. In 2011 and Kidney led Ireland to the quarter finals of the 2011 Rugby World Cup, at which Ireland recorded their first-ever clean sweep of their pool, including Ireland's first-ever win at a world cup against a major rugby nation. A series of poor game management decisions by senior players saw them defeated 22–10 by Wales. Ireland suffered their heaviest defeat in history in 2012 going down by 60-0 against New Zealand, and by 2013 had slipped to their worst IRB World Ranking of ninth when Ireland suffered a string of injuries to key players, the likes of which Ireland has not suffered previously nor suffered since. After finishing fifth in the 2013 Six Nations Championship, which included an historic loss to Italy, the IRFU, on 2 April 2013, decided to terminate Kidney's contract. Kidney finished with a record of 28 wins, 3 draws and 23 defeats.
UCC
In August 2013, Kidney was appointed as the Director of Sport and Physical Activity at UCC.
London Irish
Kidney joined London Irish in March 2018 as technical consultant. The roles reunited Kidney with Les Kiss who was appointed head coach on the same day. He later became Director of Rugby on 22 May 2018 following the resignation of Nick Kennedy..
