INJURY-PLAGUED KEARNEY AIMS FOR WORLD CUP
DAVE KEARNEY has not given up on his dream of an Ireland recall. The Leinster wing last played for his country in a November meeting with Fiji in 2017, but the 29year-old has been showing signs of a return to form. Kearney featured in both of Leinster’s recent European Champions Cup games against Toulouse and Wasps, scoring a brilliant try from a Ross Byrne cross-kick against the French side. Having made the cut for the 31-man squad for the last World Cup, Kearney is targeting a seat on the flight to Japan later this year and revealed that Joe Schmidt has been in contact to offer him support and guidance. ‘I had a chat before the (Six Nations) squad was announced,’ he said. ‘He was really happy with my progress over the last couple of months, I think the big thing for him was, similar to the trend over the last few months, where I need to be getting game time at that level, consistently, which I probably didn’t have before that. ‘A goal of mine is, hopefully if things go well for me, I can get back into the Six Nations squad. There’s a World Cup then in September which is definitely still a goal of mine.’ Kearney had endured a succession of injury issues over the past three seasons with hamstring, ankle and toe problems keeping him on the sidelines for large swathes of campaigns. In his absence, the likes of Jordan Larmour, Adam Byrne and Barry Daly have moved up the pecking order, not to mention the mercurial James Lowe. This weekend’s Pro14 clash with Zebre will afford Kearney another chance to further his cause. ‘This is always a good opportunity with a number of guys away in (Ireland) camp,’ he added. ‘With the squad rotation earlier in the season, everyone needs a game and because we’re quite heavy in the back three, the back three is probably going to be pretty different most weeks so it is a bit tougher to get back-toback game time. ‘But now, there still is a fair few back-three players around who need gametime too but it makes it a bit easier to get game-time while the lads are gone so it’s a big block for me again and obviously then we’ve a big (European) quarter-final coming down the line. ‘There’s a lot more rugby to be played.’