O’Driscoll was my biggest idol, says well-groomed rugby star Kearney

Rugby star Rob Kearney has revealed that teammate Brian O’Driscoll was one of his biggest idols during his childhood.

The 26-year-old has received a dizzying number of accolades this year, including European Player of the Year, but said yesterday he hopes they aren’t a “poison chalice”.

And the pin-up of Irish rugby laughed off his sex symbol status yesterday in an interview on the Ray D’Arcy Show, joking that he had a high-maintenance, grooming regime.

“There lots of practice, up at 6am every morning,” he said. “Three hours’ maintenance before I leave the house. I cleanse, moisturise, and then a coat afterwards.”

Kearney, who is recovering from a successful operation on a slipped disc in his back, said he is getting frustrated at sitting on the sidelines. “That is the worst thing of all. I need to get back on the field pretty soon,” he said.

The Leinster full-back, who is promoting the milkitforallitsworth.ie campaign, which will allow a young teenage team to train with the Irish squad, revealed how 33-year-old Brian O’Driscoll was one of his biggest heroes before he joined the squad.

He said: “Some of the guys that I play with now, the likes of Brian, would be considerably older than me.

“When he was still playing for Ireland and he was coming in in his early age, I would have sort of still been a young lad and looked up to him and admired him a huge amount.

“And Keith Wood and Simon Geoghegan, all of these guys who did so much for Irish rugby over the years.

“You just admire guys who are inspirational on the field and good leaders and who are pretty good and Keith Wood was all of those.”

Kearney said it was intimidating when he first lined up with his idols in the green shirt. “It is intimidating but it is something you have to get over pretty quickly. You have to sort of move away from the idea of admiring those guys and idolising and moving more into playing alongside them and competing with them.

“If you don’t make that transition in your head, you’re probably not going to succeed too quickly.”

Kearney also revealed that the toughest training for the team is during the summer when they have to prepare for the upcoming rugby season.

“July and August is when you get hammered, fitness wise. It’s the two months of the year where you sort of condition your body to sustain a full season of rugby.

“In season, it’s pretty light because you are getting 80 minutes of rugby in the weekend and you are getting a pretty big fitness hit from that.”

He said the tackles in training have to be just as ferocious as they are on the field. “You have to go at it 100%. Sometimes lads will pick up a few niggles and injuries in training which isn’t ideal but you do need to practise those things.”