How happy Kearney has beaten the fear factor
As he counts down the days to his 14th season as a professional, Rob Kearney is as happy as he’s ever been.
With a third European Cup winner’s medal recently placed on the mantelpiece, and a second grand slam in the pocket, it’s perhaps no wonder, but there’s more to it than that.
The 32-year-old has maintained his starting place for Leinster and Ireland despite the presence of no little amount of pretenders, and with 13 months to go looks well placed for one final shot at World Cup glory.
But it’s not just that, either, it’s the feeling that comes with enjoying (if they can be enjoyed) a 14th pre-season, with a body that’s as happy with him as he is with it.
Two years ago there was little joy in Kearney’s rugby after a series of hamstring injuries — five in one season — and three surgeries not long before.
But this summer he’s feeling like a new man, and recorded his best numbers in six years during a recent pre-season sprinting test.
“I still absolutely love the game, two years ago, not so much but now, absolutely,” he said.
“The last six months, I’ve been as happy as I’ve ever been in the environment, on the rugby field, I’m really enjoying the last two or three years of my career, whatever it might be.
“I made this decision to get into rugby from the age of 18. You can’t come out the other end of it and resent it, if it’s always been my decision to put myself in it in the first place.
“When the body’s not good, the mind’s not good, and when the mind’s not good, your desire to play and enjoy rugby is massively diminished. Last year was one of, if not the, most enjoyable years that I’ve had playing rugby.”
The optimism is flowing, but it wasn’t always thus — not even last season, when everything Leinster touched turned to gold.
He came through the season unscathed, but those precious hamstrings were always in his mind — always one ‘ping’ away from disaster.
He’s free to admit it now the season has passed and he was not to blame for any serious mistakes, but there were occasions when he’d collect the ball and wish it had gone elsewhere.
“Sometimes you get the ball in space and you have to go full blast for it and there were times I didn’t want the ball or if I got an intercept, instead of running the length, you’d be looking for someone else,” he said.
“You were afraid of just waiting for the ‘ping’. You can’t come clean because you won’t get picked then,” he added, “If you say, ‘I’m not overly confident in my body at the moment,’ you’re out the door.
“It happened to me a couple of times last year, but you have to just go and, if you pull up, you pull up.
“It is a difficult place to be in when you’re running and the only thing you are thinking is your hamstrings.
“Now, thankfully I’ve come out the other end of that, it was a big area for me in my pre-season this year.”
This year Kearney believes he will be needed more than ever in a team that has achieved unprecedented success. An older head in an ever younger dressing room, he knows well the mentality of being a young, successful player.
It was at the end of the
2008/9 season that Brian O’Driscoll had a word in Kearney’s ear after the 22-year-old had helped Ireland to a first grand slam in 61 years, and after he turned 23, lifted the first of his three European Cup titles.
“Listen, this is not how it flies,” O’Driscoll said, “These opportunities don’t come around too often, you have to work hard for them.”
Kearney took a bit of convincing. “I’d won a slam in my second Six Nations, and it was my third Heineken Cup season when we won that, then I was on a Lions tour at the end of that year, so you’re 22 years of age and you think, ‘This is easy, what’s everyone going on about?’” he said.
Now it’s Kearney delivering the message to the younger players like Jordan Larmour and James Ryan, two players who barely know what losing means.
“It’s up to me and some of the older lads to make sure that the younger boys...not lose the run of themselves because I’d like to think we’re a pretty humble, down-to-earth group, but that they make sure they know these opportunities don’t come around too often, it doesn’t happen every year,” he said.
“The older lads must make sure these guys aren’t happy with what they’ve achieved, you make sure they understand that you don’t get it by accident, you make sure that they fully buy into the fact that we have to be better this year than we were last year if we are to win again. That’s where the onus is on the older guys to bring the younger guys along with you.”
Leinster lost at the semi-final stage the season after their 2009 triumph, but bounced back quickly to top Europe again in 2011 and 2012. Kearney played just twice in 2011, but was a key figure in the club’s third title.
“It’s obviously a very difficult thing [to defend the title] and considerably more difficult now given the calibre of other teams around, but it’s certainly doable and there’s no reason why we can’t do it again,” he said.
“But it’s the start of a new season, it’s a clean slate. You can’t look too far behind you. For the new lads who hadn’t won trophies or medals, they will get a kick from that winning feeling and a huge amount of belief.
"They know the facts are now that we can do it. Having won both trophies they will get a huge amount of belief from that. But it’s important you keep looking forward and making sure you are improving from what you did last year. Because everyone will agree that what we did last year probably won’t be good enough to win it again.”
