Kearney still haunted by Eden Park nightmare

He’s been one of Ireland’s most enduring and consistent players during Declan Kidney’s rein, but even Rob Kearney found the going tough in Eden Park last weekend.

“It’s never nice conceding 40 points in a test match,” he said. “It’s a pretty miserable feeling when the final whistle blows.”

It was a particularly difficult night for Kearney in having to deal with giant winger Julian Savea flying down his channel at regular intervals as the All Blacks ran riot in Auckland.

The Leinster fullback put in adramatic hand trip on the powerful Kiwi when he split the Irish defence on halfway but Kearney got more than he bargained for when tried to sell Savea a dummy earlier in the contest.

“Yeah, I got a nice smack,” said Kearney on getting crunched by last weekend’s hat-trick hero for New Zealand. Savea grabbed the headlines for his classy finishing at Eden Park.

Kearney, however, believes it is possible to keep the new kid on the block quiet in Christchurch.

“We gave him a lot of space,” said Kearney on the 20-year-old flyer. “They exploited that space really well. For his tries, he didn’t have to work overly hard for them, I think Israel put him in for the two really nice ones, and Dan Carter put him in for another one.

“Of course, as a winger, you need to in the right place at the right time but if we can stop that supply of ball closer to the heart then hopefully he won’t get as much ball in space as he did.”

Kearney and his three-quarter comrades can ill-afford to give Savea, Dagg and Co the same space again, or a repeat mauling is on the cards.