NOT READY TO PASS ON THE BATON
There’s a new star in town but Rob Kearney is no hurry to vacate No.15
THE amusing ‘Boring Kearneys’ Twitter account was quick off the mark on Monday evening, telling its followers that ‘Tommy Bowe is going fulltime at the shoes’ after it emerged the Ulster and Ireland star is retiring at the end of the season.
What to do when the rugby finishes, though, is something firmly on the mind of Rob Kearney himself. The long-serving Ireland fullback reinforced his position as Joe Schmidt’s first-choice No15 with excellent performances in the November wins over South Africa and Argentina. However, he knows the day when he is forced to quit will eventually come. It scares him.
Only last September, having linked up with the newly-launched Mason Alexander sports recruitment firm, Kearney posted a video to his 341,000 Twitter followers where he spoke about the rugby afterlife, that difficult hurdle of having to find a second career once the boots get hung up.
‘I have no idea when the time will come. It could be this year, could be five years’ time,’ he said. ‘It’s one of the daunting things about what we do. We can never predict the future in terms of when we’re going to have to make that transition.
‘Change is something that everybody goes through. It’s inevitable. The more you embrace it, try to get some sort of fix, find a new love, a new passion… it’ll be exciting, but it’ll be challenging, and I think that’s what people want from life.’
Kearney has always come across as the ambitious type.
He was just 21 when he dared to ask at an Ireland camp why it seemed Munster players played more passionately in the red jersey than in the green. It caused a storm, yet it had the galvanising effect of unifying the group inherited by Declan Kidney.
A few months later, Ireland claimed a first Grand Slam in 61 years.
He has also taken a keen interest in the player welfare/business side of the sport, becoming chairman of the Rugby Players Ireland union in 2014 and constantly sounding like a genuine voice of authority when talking on their behalf.
At the age of 31, though, now is the time for him to start looking after No1 just that little bit more. With his three-year central contract due to expire next June, there is a negotiation that needs to be successfully signed off on.
He also needs to keep on top of his increasingly temperamental body. Too many games in recent seasons have been missed due to soft tissue injuries such as glute and hamstring.
There is also the runaway Larmour Express to think about. Kearney knows all about the threat the 20-year-old poses to the established order.
Not only at Leinster, where he made a first European start last Sunday versus Glasgow Warriors, but also at Test level now Joe Schmidt has taken a shine to and included the uncapped kid in the Six Nations squad.
In 2005 Michael Cheika gave Kearney, then just 19, his first look-in at Leinster.
The youngster gradually earned his stripes before ousting Girvan Dempsey some years later as firstchoice No15 for both club and country. Kearney is now on the other end of this changing-of-the-guard situation, occupying the Dempsey role while the fast-stepping Larmour is the kid Kearney once was. It makes for an exciting prospect, the apprentice learning as much as he can from the master before potentially making the position his own. You can be sure, though, that Kearney won’t exit without a fight, as his aim is to be as much of a success as a 30-something as he was when a youngster on a rapid rise through the levels. Kearney has previously bared his soul on the subject of repeated injuries, explaining how it ravaged not just his body but also his mind. ‘I can’t stress to you how mentally [good it is] if you know you’re in a good place,’ he said back in September of 2016, following a season that was more stop than start.
‘Last year I was just trying to get through training every day, just making sure I was OK for the weekend, whereas now I’m training hard, improving and bettering myself during the week and being really confident on the Saturday as opposed to just plodding around. I wasn’t myself last year.
‘It’s just always there in the back of your mind as soon as you go to open up, is this [hamstring] going to give on me? You’re probably holding yourself back a lot. You don’t get that match sharpness. There’s a fair bit of doubt in yourself if you know you can’t fully commit to a game.’
Some weeks later in Chicago, he was left in no doubt that his stellar CV counted for nothing going in against the All Blacks.
‘I knew I needed a big game but when the coach tells you a few minutes before kick-off, it was different.’
Kearney famously delivered for Schmidt in that historic win and will hope to do so again in Paris in 15 days’ time.
But first things first — getting that No15 shirt back for Leinster tomorrow in Montpellier.
The day he has to quit will come, and it scares him