Rob Kearney interview: ‘It’s sink or swim for us now’

History will judge this generation of Irish rugby players well and few more so than Rob Kearney. He is the only player to have started all five games of the 2009 Grand Slam and every game of the last two back-to-back Six Nations titles.

Rory Best is the only other player to have appeared in all 15 games, but Kearney is the only one who has started them all. He must be doing something right.

He concedes there's a fair bit of luck in that, for he missed the entire 2011 Six Nations as well as a game in 2010, and like all his contemporaries he is heavily indebted to backroom teams at Ireland at Leinster, notably the strength and conditioning staffs headed by Jason Cowman and the medical teams, as well as the video analysts and coaches. "There's a chain there and everybody has to be doing their jobs."

Still, three winners’ medals is something worth celebrating, even if he allows little pause for reflection or contentment. “We get greedy,” he admits, “and I think it’s a good thing to be greedy now if you allow yourself to appreciate it in years to come. But that collective greed just breeds a little more desire to achieve.”

It’s like a drug. It’s addictive.

“It’s unbelievable. And even looking at Dave [his brother], who achieved everything last year, and not to get a minute this year. If he never experienced last year and he was in the squad and fighting for a place it would be different. And that’s not just him. When you’ve experienced winning, and then you don’t get it the following year, it hurts more than not having won before. It’s 100 per cent a drug.”

Gravy train

To underline the point, that 2009 Slam was Ireland’s first title of any hue since 1985. Several fullbacks, to name just one position, have been and gone since without enjoying anything like the same success, and Kearney cites the example of his predecessor at Leinster and Ireland, Girvan Dempsey, who won the last of his 82 caps in November 2008, just before the gravy train rolled by.

He hails the provinces and the IRFU for the job they’ve done, which is why he’s more than content to have signed a new three-year deal.

“It’s just important that we keep doing it because it’s going to get harder and harder to compete.”

As critical to that is that the provinces remain competitive. “You cannot put a price on silverware. It’s as simple as that, and as soon as your team starts to become a little bit uncompetitive or gets the fear of winning trophies, then you’re going to get guys thinking; ‘ah, I’m not going to win, I might as well go and take a few quid’. And that is key.”

Kearney has generally given the impression that he has a very calm temperament, that he’s fairly confident and assured in himself, both on and off the pitch. While it’s not an act, he also reasons that as with his game, in a sense it’s part of his remit.

“Maybe I’m wrong with this and I sometimes debate this with myself, but a lot of people when you think of a fullback he has to be the cornerstone of their attacking and everything has to go through him.

“When I think fullback, 51 per cent of me thinks ‘goalkeeper’,” he admits. “The other 49 per cent is like ‘okay, when we’re attacking you’ve got to go forward’, but I think it’s more important to think ‘okay, I’m looking after everything at the back and I need to give everybody else confidence’.”

Akin to how Ian Madigan sees it as his responsibility, especially as a goal-kicker, so Kearney has to convey that sense of confidence to team-mates as much as anyone else. "That can be a little bit misleading in terms of who you are and what you're trying to do. But sometimes there's a reason for that. Sometimes it might look as if 'look at yer man, he's a bit of a strut at the back'. But sometimes that's put on so that the other 14 guys around can take a little bit of confidence from that."

Kearney is also the first to admit that his performances were more solid than eye-catching this season. In contrast, he ran in tries against Scotland and England last season to back up his long-range effort against New Zealand.

Outside channels

“I was pretty quiet,” he concedes freely of his own Six Nations Championship form this season. “I was very solid. For the first three or four games, we were getting little ball and we weren’t attacking a huge amount, or getting the opportunity to do it. It’s getting increasingly difficult to do it off scrum and against defences it’s becoming harder to get two or three passes away to those outside channels before you get man and ball. So that’s taken a little bit of emphasis away from my attacking game. And you can’t buy a line break now for love nor money.”

He takes satisfaction in that their opposition only had one set-piece from open play within 10 metres of the Irish line.

"That means our grass cover is really good. Aerially we got done against Wales. That was a big disappointment for us but that just shows how important the air is. It's an area of the game that's only starting to have that high level of importance attached to it."

All that said and done, he enjoyed Ireland's more expansive approach against Scotland, and conceded that Wales 61-20 win over Italy actually did Ireland a favour by setting them a target of 23 points.

“We came in after the warm-up and Joe told us Wales had scored 61 points. There was a little bit of that,” he says, motioning to drop his chin to convey the whiff of disappointment.

“He [Joe] added: ‘so we need [to win by] 23. It was probably the best thing that happened to us. We played. We were attacking from deep. Everyone looked hungry.”

By contrast, his career with Leinster hasn't been so bountiful. Having played in the Bloodgate quarter-final against Harlequins, he was ruled out of the semi-final with mumps, and then confined to a replacement's role for the last nine minutes in the 2009 final against Leicester. Sidelined for the 2011 campaign, Kearney eventually played all nine games, scoring six tries, in the 2012 Heineken Cup win.

“That was massive for me, in being able to play that full campaign, get to the final and finish it. My perception of the Heineken Cup changed dramatically after that because before it was a competition that I hated.”

Leinster fans approach today’s quarter-final with trepidation, not helped by their team slipping to fifth in the Pro12.

“I think it’s been a tricky enough year,” admits Kearney. “We’re very up and down. I think this week is very important to us. You don’t want to start thinking about ‘what ifs’, but this could be a huge turning point for us.”

Unprecedented disruptions to the squad, due to international call-ups and injuries, have hurt them as much as recent results. A coterie of leaders have been lost over the last few seasons, but this makes the influence of their returning front-liners, such as Kearney himself, so important this week.

“Without a doubt, and sometimes it takes big occasions and big moments to see. It’s sink-or-swim sort of stuff, and you can say that about young guys coming in as well as the experienced guys to stand up and lead. So I think there’s more pressure on the international guys coming back.”

No silly penalties

“It’s a big week for our ‘leaders’. Chat and communication is so important. You can’t expect line breaks, or a hat-trick, it’s just that little bit better organisation off phase play, realising when we need to play territory; all those small little things. No silly penalties. ‘You get your rucking right’. Better kicking and contesting. It’s very easy to complicate this game.”

“What I will say is we’re unbelievable well prepared. We’ve have our best week’s training in a long, long time, so I’m pretty sure that will cross over.”

Bath’s preparations haven’t been a whole lot better, and Leinster are at home he argues, so no excuses, though he admits: “Bath are a quality side. What they did to Toulouse was the performance of the season in the European Cup, and they’ll take an enormous amount of confidence from that. So it’s a massive test.”

Yet Kearney looks around the home changing-room today he’ll be comforted in what he sees. “Without a doubt, it’s a team good enough to win a Heineken Cup. Without a doubt.”