Rob Kearney relieved with victory but says Leinster need to improve

It’s been Rob Kearney’s prerogative for the last few years to be a credible public sounding board for the team. A panoramic vantage point at fullback and growing experience has given him a measured eye.

His instinct in these fraught days for Leinster is to cut to the chase and see merit in self criticism. It takes only a shallow digging to unearth positive points of Leinster's clinging win over a resurgent Bath. But the flaws of the performance hold value too.

“We went into our shell a little bit and you can’t do that. It was the one thing I said at half-time, you can’t sit back and let them play, and we did,” said the Leinster fullback.

“We started to tighten up and we dropped a little bit. When we were attacking, our kicking got poor, so we just need to keep attacking the game because against the better sides, you go into your shell five per cent and they’ll punish you.”

Some lose kicking in the final 20 minutes added to Bath’s high-tempo end to the game. As Leinster tried to close out the match by putting the ball in Bath’s half and asking them play from awkward positions, the accuracy wasn’t there. The defensive kicks became invitations for their backs and outhalf to run the ball back.

Gone long

“Yeah but it’s hard,” said Kearney. “Twice we were in our 22 and maybe only once, me, I should have gone long and put the ball out but it’s hard to put it into touch when you’re not in your 22, because teams don’t give you those corners.

“So when you’re kicking it has to be contestable because it’s one of our strengths. When the kick is good and accurate and contestable, the majority of the time we get the ball back...especially when they’re as dangerous as they are. Watson had a field day a couple of times against us, okay we scrambled really well but we can’t put ourselves in that position.”

What will perturb the fans, although, maybe not Matt O'Connor, Jamie Heaslip nor indeed Kearney, is that it has been an arid European season for tries. Again it took the kicking of Ian Madigan to build a credible score.

In that cameo Madigan has excelled. From the flighty talent, the have-a-go outhalf has become a reliable kicker from the tee and has allowed Leinster win their matches from discipline and defending.

“There has been a lot of times this season we have had to rely on him as a kicker,” said Kearney. “But you have to look at the reasons we are getting those penalties, there has been a lot of times this season where we have been attacking through three, four phases and teams have been giving penalties away.”

Heaslip was similarly minded and, like Kearney, knows they will need to improve on that performance. In Europe each step closer to the trophy requires a step up from the teams

“You can’t sit back, with or without the ball,” said Heaslip. “Last year we were caught in that first 50 minutes of the game sitting back. You give teams like Toulon, Wasps or Bath quick ball and they have big runners in their pack, electric guys out back and guys pulling the strings who are really good at making the right decision at the right time. So, you can’t do that.

“You gotta get off the line, get guys to ground. We had a 75 per cent tackle success, we can’t have that going forward. I thought our shape with the ball was quite good. I thought we stretched them and played in the right areas. Right now, we’ve got a very tired but happy bunch in there but we are realistic that we have to push it both in the league and in Europe this next few weeks.”

The instinct now is to look forward. But Kearney again presses for Leinster to learn from the things they may not have gotten right in the past and maybe their approach and preparation has wavered during the season.

“We had a good two days away in Powerscourt and our preparation this week has been brilliant,” he said.

“And it’s been different to a lot of weeks throughout the season. I think one thing we have to look at is why it has been different this week. If we want to be a great side, you have to have that level of preparation every single week.

“So I think that’s one very important thing that we have learned, that if we can treat very week like we have done this week we’ll get ourselves out of fifth in the Pro 12 and go away probably to France (Toulon).”