Kearney relieved as Irish turn the corner in Croker cracker
The former underage Louth gaelic football star has made a major impression since his introduction to the big scene a couple of seasons ago, was already being touted as a possible Lions test full-back for this summer’s tour to South Africa; despite his own individual brilliance, however, results hadn’t been going his way.
Of his 11 tests played up to last Saturday, a stuttering Ireland had lost more than they’d won — “Something like a 38% win record — not too good,” he reckons.
Along with being a major scalp taken, then, Saturday’s win was also a personal relief. “That was the first time (since I came on the team) that we’ve beaten one of the stronger sides in the Six-Nations. Last year we had only two wins, against Italy and Scotland — I was involved in three defeats in the Six-Nations, so it’s nice to get off to a good start this time.”
Nicer again that it was against a French side that brought back memories of old with their adventurous, free-spirited display, making good use of the full length and breadth of Croke Park.
“Yes, the most satisfying thing about it was how well France played; coming off the pitch, the games you most enjoy and the games you will have found most satisfying are the games where you had to dig deep, where you had to put in a lot of work in attack and defence.”
They certainly did that against France, with some superb ball-handling of their own in attack, Kearney prominent time after time, but passages of heroic defence also, stretched to the limit on many occasions.
Mind you, they did draw a lot of that pressure on themselves, too many kicks that went too far, giving a truly menacing French back-three plenty of space to attack, and time to attack it — recipe for trouble.
“Yeah, the thing about that was our kick-chase was poor; if you don’t have that wall (of defence) up against them, you’re giving them opportunities to counter.
“We were ahead for most of the game, and when that happens you want to try and play in their half, force them to make the errors, which gives them opportunities to counter. And they did counter quite well.
“You can make a team look very strong in the counter if your chase is poor; if you send up a line that’s disjointed, and you’re giving the likes of Poitrenaud and those kind of quick backs the chance to get a step on you, you’re going to make them look good.
“That wasn’t good enough from us last week, and that’s why they got so many busts on us — hopefully our kick-chase will be stronger this week.”
Despite all the talk of how powerful the Italian pack is going to be this is a side which, with the likes of Mirco Bergamasco, Masi, Canale, Robertson behind the scrum, can also threaten with ball in hand. From an Irish perspective, for the back three especially — of which Kearney is the pivotal member — a repeat of the mistakes made against France can lead to another nervy afternoon.
“Yeah, they’re a strong side and every year they’re improving. They didn’t do themselves justice against England — the scrum-half was poor, but they won’t be trying that experiment again. Their performance will be up, they’re a strong, physical side, and if you’re loose against them they’ll punish you.”
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