Ireland tour of Argentina:Robert Kearney would have been just as self-absorbed in "that" moment as any other player on hearing his name read out for the first time at the Irish team meeting on Tuesday morning. He knew that if he was to be picked, it would be the fifth name on the team sheet. "Eleven, Robert Kearney."

"You don't hear the rest of the team, you just switch off," he admits. One can only imagine the emotions running through him or any other player in the seconds and minutes that follow.

"It was a brilliant, fantastic feeling. I suppose coming out here there was a better chance of getting capped than maybe being part of the Six Nations camp. It was really, really relieving. We lined it up on Monday so I had a good idea but you never hold your breath or get your hopes up. You're setting yourself up for a fall then."

Dundalk-born Kearney played minor football for Louth but his innate flair, running game and superb left foot were always more naturally inclined toward rugby.

"As a kid I always had a dream. Rugby was always my first sport, something I loved doing. When does it start to kick in to become a reality? I suppose at school.

"At 17, 18, in the Schools Senior Cup, then you work on to Irish schoolboys and then the Academy, and anything is possible then."

His family background was steeped in rugby. His father, David, played with Dundalk, and all three boys Richard, Robert and David followed his footsteps by attending Clongowes. "It was always in the family. Sure I grew up watching Richard and the whole schoolboy thing appealed to me straight off. It was always in the blood I think."

Richard came out on Monday, and his father on Tuesday. "It's great for them and great for me that I'm able to share my first cap with them, which is always something special." Siobhan, his mother, is staying at home with David, another impressive Clongowes protégé on their Leinster Schools Senior Cup team this year, as he's sitting his Leaving Certificate. "She'd have been on the plane too but she's taking a hit for the team by staying at home to look after him."

An impressively level-headed young man, who wasn't too big for his boots to help out UCD on their successful AIB League run to avoid relegation, it's funny to think he says his uppermost feelings were one of "relief", that he had "finally made it." At 21, he is the baby of the team; seven months younger than Stephen Ferris. As recently as September 2005, straight from school, he made his debut for Leinster away to the Ospreys. His charged down kick which led to the opening Ospreys' try was quickly overcome by a composed performance and a stand-out rookie season in the professional ranks. Within months he had broken into the Irish A team.

"In my first few months everything happened so quickly and within three months I was a part of the national squad. So when these things happen you set yourself a standard to make more progress and become more involved.

"This season, compared to last season, I found so much more beneficial, in terms of where I want to be eventually. It taught me so much about how to cope and how to get there, whereas last season everything just kept going up and up. It was great at the time, but you get your setbacks, your injuries, or you're out of favour after a couple of poor games. You learn a lot from it."

He was plagued by the athlete's curse, hamstring tweaks, and he was popularly perceived to be the victim of second-season syndrome. In truth his form probably didn't dip as much as was felt, and to Michael Cheika's credit he stuck by Kearney and was rewarded for doing so. He had a few bad games at the start of the season before being sidelined with a strained hamstring, and though back in the Leinster side when Girvan Dempsey and Luke Fitzgerald were injured, he found himself increasingly under pressure.

His season reached something of a nadir when he dropped a couple of high balls in Leinster's defeat to Munster in December, and faced a point of no return on New Year's Eve against Ulster in what could have been his last stand.

"I found that game against Ulster was the most pressure I've ever been under because I knew that was a make or break game. If I played poorly I knew I could be out of the team. I wasn't outstanding but everything I did, I did well, and I made no mistakes, which was important. After that game, the confidence came up a bit and it just moved freely on from then."

Next time out, against the Ospreys in Donnybrook, he scored a couple of tries, the first a cracking solo effort. Kearney was back. As Luke Fitzgerald has also discovered this season, and Kieran Lewis before them, it's tough being a talented young back in Leinster. It must be one of the most easily named backlines in the global game. Then again, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

"It's hard to cope if you know you're able to play at that standard but you're not getting enough playing regularly. It is tough. You're just hoping for game time, be it through injury or someone else's bad luck or squad rotation to get as much game time as you can get. You just have to be patient."

Part of the second-season syndrome theory is generated by those on the outside and beyond a young player's control. "Last season mistakes were accepted. He's the new kid on the block, and that's fine. In the second season, I've been a professional for two years and though I'm still only 21, I've been around a bit, played a lot and you have to take a bit of onus on yourself as well."

What has pleased him most is that he has found a level of consistency to go with his natural ability. "That is what a coach looks for the most. If you have the skill or the talent, you have to be able to produce it week-in and week-out, without being too flashy, just doing the basics."

That said, he never started getting ahead of himself, thinking of making this squad or in turn using tomorrow's game to make a late push for a World Cup slot. "To be honest World Cup selection hasn't really entered the picture. I'm lucky in the way I can do that. You've just got to focus on what a game it is and focus on that."