Kearney gets international career off on right foot

ONE moment during the victory over Scotland convinced rugby aficionados that Ireland had unearthed a rare gem in the person of Rob Kearney.

Prior to that game it often seemed as if the young man from Dundalk had a powerful left boot but that the other leg was just there for standing on. So when the Scots launched a probing kick into the Irish 22 to the right of the posts and Kearney was the last man back, home fans held their breath and wondered what would happen next.

Totally unfazed, the former Louth gaelic footballer gathered in his stride, steadied himself and launched a powerful clearance that crossed the touch line within 10 to 15 metres of the halfway line — with his right leg! It was a fascinating cameo that brought home just what a talented, all-round footballer Kearney had developed into.

It wasn’t off the streets of his hometown that he had learned his footballing skills. Rob’s dad David played many a game in the centre for the local team and Leinster juniors. He encouraged his three sons (the second, also David, was on the wing for the Irish U20 side in Athlone last night) to become involved in sport and especially rugby and gaelic football.

He had three very willing disciples and took a central role in developing them into as close to two-footed players as makes no difference.

Explained Kearney: “Given my gaelic background, it was something I always practiced a huge amount.

“Even out in the garden, the old lad always told me, stop kicking on that left foot, get it on the right. I do practice it and it is something important to have in the tool kit. It’s always people close to you who aren’t afraid to tell you how it is.

“And it was my dad who would always tell me things like your defence or whatever wasn’t at the level where you want it to be.

“When I was going back to cover that ball I wasn’t thinking ‘I need to get it on to my left foot’. I have no problem throwing a ball on the right foot. Obviously my left leg is stronger and if I’m in a position where I can kick it off the left, then I will.

“But if I’m in a situation where I have to go on the right, I have no problem with that.

“Small things like that make the difference between full-backs and wingers.”

Small things? I wouldn’t have put an ability to kick almost equally well with both feet in that category for a rugby player plying his trade at full-back or on the wing. In many ways, though, that sums up Robert Kearney. Outwardly at least, this whole business doesn’t seem to be so much of a big deal. Along with Jamie Heaslip, another member of the younger brigade, he is regarded as a laid-back character.

“You don’t get a huge amount of time to think about it when you’re in a position to score a try like the one I got against Scotland,” was a typical reaction of Kearney’s. “I do remember having a beaming smile from one end of my mouth to the other but if you can’t smile after a moment like that, then you’re in trouble. The lads inside had done the hard work and I had very little to do.

“Geordan and Ronan started it brilliantly and Brian threaded a peach of a pass and I was lucky to be on the end of it. Brian’s got a great distribution game and he put in on the money. If a winger can’t catch the ball and make a 15-yard run, then there’s a problem.

“I credit the lads inside with all the work. Finish things — that’s what I’m supposed to do. It was a case of pinning the ears back and then getting back into position for the next play.”

You could hardly blame Rob Kearney if, a year or so ago, he was thinking of a move from Leinster in a search of regular first team rugby.

With Girvan Dempsey seemingly ensconced at full-back forever, Luke Fitzgerald lurking in the background and the three-quarter line awash with talent, old and new, the scene wasn’t all it might have been.

“To be where I am now from then is some transformation,” he mused. “I have travelled a long way in 12 months. What I’m trying to do most of all is be aware it is such a fickle game. One bad week and I could very easily be back where I was. I won’t lose sight of that fact.

“I could be thinking, ‘look at me now, am I not fantastic?’ Of course not. It’s more about staying focused so that I’m not back there again.”

Kearney’s graph is on the up and up with the hope that later this afternoon he will be regarded as potentially one of the finest full-backs of his generation.

“This is the stage everyone wants to be at,” says the former Irish Examiner Sports Star ahead of today’s Welsh test.

“This is why we play rugby. It’s for the big occasions and the big games. Certainly, taking on this Welsh side, no matter how well they’ve played, is not something you fear at all. We do it every week against these players in the Magners League. With all the hype, it’s going to be fantastic.”