RUGBY: GERRY THORNLEYtalks to the rehabilitating fullback who did have an offer from France but was much happier to sign a contract extension with Leinster

ALTHOUGH THERE was one tempting offer from a club in France’s Top 14, Rob Kearney’s preference was always to extend his career in Ireland with Leinster for another two years.

By agreeing to do so yesterday, Kearney pretty much completes a nap hand for the IRFU and the provinces who – with the exception of Tony Buckley – have now re-signed all their indigenous frontliners for at least the next two seasons.

Sidelined since last November with a serious knee injury, Kearney’s two-year contract extension at least provides welcome relief.

“I’m really happy. There was never, ever a doubt in my own mind as to where I wanted to go, because I’m still very, very young. I’m still only 24 years of age and I genuinely believe that the two teams I play for at the moment are really going places. We’ve got great fans here and great team-mates and I just love everything about the set-up.”

As with Jonny Sexton, Jamie Heaslip and Brian O’Driscoll, Kearney’s decision is also a bit of a compliment to the Leinster set-up under Joe Schmidt, who has continued the good work of Michael Cheika.

“Yeah, massively, and what I think is great is that that whole transition has seemed so seamless as well. ‘Checks’ is in some ways a very difficult character to replace because of what he’s created there, but Joe has come in, and although he’s a different character, the whole ship has just run so smoothly and it seems as if we’re as good as we’ve ever been now.”

Unlike most other players, Kearney’s agent is his father, David. “I always felt it was just a bit more personable and the level of a trust is a lot higher, and I suppose for those two reasons I always felt it was a bit nicer to let him go in and do it,” he explained yesterday.

Kearney admits there was one “sticky” patch during the negotiations, which prompted him to travel to France. “There was one offer in France that I really only considered and it was somewhere that if things did go bust here it was the only place I really would have enjoyed going to and playing my rugby there. If everything was financially motivated, my bags would have been packed and I would have gone there tomorrow morning.

“That was a nice compliment as well,” added the Louth native, “but there’s still so much more I want to achieve with Leinster and it was never really an option unless it was a real fallback for me.”

Kearney has had a micro fracture operation to repair his articular cartilage, which he had damaged a week before the Ireland-South Africa Aviva game at the beginning of November, and also played through pain against New Zealand before the injury was diagnosed the next day.

“It’s coming on really well and making good progress. I could play in late April or May, depending on how Leinster’s season is going. It was a really bad injury which I picked up, unfortunately. I can’t lose sight of that as well, that if it’s not looked after this time then potentially it could be something that hampers my career down the line so I need to take really good care of it first and foremost.”

He admits that watching games is very difficult, and he is glad of the distraction of a masters in business studies. “In some regards I can’t wait until the Six Nations is over, but I’m lucky I’ve got things to keep me really busy at college. I’m coping quite well. I thought I’d be worse at it, actually.”