Rob’s wedding ‘doesn’t crack top 10 days’
RETIRED rugby star Rob Kearney has admitted his wedding day wasn’t the “best day of his life”.
The Co Louth native married Jess Redden at the five-star Trump International Hotel in Doonbeg, Co. Clare in December 2021.
But speaking on the podcast, Insights with Sean O’Rourke, the former Ireland International admitted his wedding day wasn’t even in the top ten best days of his life.
He said: “I’m sure she won’t mind me saying this but discussing our wedding day with Jess is always… she thinks this was the best day of her life, there’s nothing that would come close to her wedding day, the best day of her life.
“I loved it, I’d love to do it all again, and in my own head I’m thinking ‘Jaysus this doesn’t come into top ten days of my life.’ I’ve had Heineken cups, grand slams beaten the All Blacks.
“Our wedding day doesn’t even register.”
Triumphed
But Rob said there was only one day that triumphed over the whole lot of those special moments - the birth of his son Bobby Brian in 2023. “And I thought nothing would ever come close to some of these big victories but the birth of your first child has made all of those sporting days so insignificant.
“Family life has become my biggest purpose.”
Opening up about his son, he said he would be “disappointed” if he didn’t play sports.
“I have a son now and I’d be very, very disappointed if he didn’t play a team sport. I think it’s so important for people to have the softer skills of life I find now a lot of people take for granted.”
Heart
About his career, Rob said: “If you don’t have a very thick skin there’s a chance that you won’t survive in that profession.
“It comes with the territory over it. And you can develop that as the years go on and there was definitely things said to me that I absolutely took to heart, and I was very offended by them but you just learn to move on and get on with it.”
Speaking about playing under Joe Schmidt, he described him as a “ruthless coach” who was “difficult to work under”.
He said: “He was a ruthless coach. He was. The ultimate perfectionist where if you were a beat off in terms of what he wanted you to do you’d get two barrels between the eyes.
“It was difficult to work under him, to work in that sort of regime - constant stress, constant pressure and anxiety put on you from Monday to Friday that sometimes when the game came around it was the easier part of the week.
“He wanted to put players under the most extreme pressure.”