Kearney: Cool Madigan can stand heat

Rob Kearney has rolled the clock back on his injury comeback but insists Ian Madigan can withstand another aerial inspection from Clermont this weekend.

Speaking at the Leinster Schools Cup draws at Aviva Stadium, Kearney revealed he may not return to action until Round 6 in the Heineken Cup.

Brock James and Morgan Parra tested Madigan’s in-flight abilities with a series of high balls at Stade Marcel Michelin on Sunday. The converted out-half handled the challenge manfully and his counter-attack in the early stages of Leinster’s 15-12 loss caused Clermont to deploy foul means to prevent a try.

“I certainly wouldn’t be able to go and play out-half, I can tell you that,” Kearney admitted. “It shows the sign of a really good, skilful rugby player who can make the change seamlessly.”

The Cooley native insists Madigan has yet to play a bad game since the move. He said, “Clermont kicked a fair bit of ball to him at the weekend and they’ll probably come after him again this weekend because he’s an out-half playing full-back. He has proved he is more than capable of handling everything that comes his way, and if he plays there again this week, I expect the exact same.”

Leinster supporters grimly accepted they would be without the services of Kearney and Brian O’Driscoll until the Heineken Cup visit of Scarlets to the RDS next January. The Cooley native tempered those hopes.

“I’m just under seven weeks now post-surgery with no injury setbacks yet,” he said. “It was a 12-week injury, which brings me back around Heineken Cup Round 6 [Exeter on January 18].

“If I can steal a week or two, that would be pretty good. I’m hoping but it’s still early days in terms of my rehab but that’s my intention and, if I don’t get any setbacks, it’s makeable.”

Kearney landed a 40m drop goal to spark a second-half comeback against Clermont in last season’s semi-final. His try-scoring abilities will be missed next Saturday; his last outing at Lansdowne Road yielded a Heineken Cup double against Cardiff Blues.

Keen attacking instincts mean Kearney would never criticise Jonathan Sexton for his cross-field punt to Fergus McFadden when a kickable penalty was on offer.

“You’d never slate Jonny,” Kearney said. “You’re not going to win games by just kicking points.

“It was early in the second half so no-one had the foresight to see that we were just going to be beaten by three points. When you go to Clermont, you have to score tries. It was close, it nearly came off but it’s not even a case of backing Jonny as we felt it was just as viable an option as going for the posts.”

Kearney added: “Leinster will take a huge amount of confidence from the weekend. Ok, they’ll be disappointed they didn’t win it but they proved to themselves that they can win against, probably, the form team in Europe.”

The injured full-back would be delighted to return to action next year with a cause to fight for but he does not believe all-out attack should be first on the tactical flip chart.

Kearney said, “Come Round 6, if you know that you need that bonus point to qualify, then you become a little bit more attacking.

“Guys won’t be going out thinking we have to score four tries, it will be that we have to win the game.”