Competition part of fun for Kearney

Dave Kearney has learned to keep the focus internal at Leinster.

The 24-year-old’s route to a starting slot opened up considerably during the summer with the departure of Isa Nacewa, Andrew Conway and Fionn Carr, but then Zane Kirchner arrived and Lote Tuqiri followed on a short-term deal.

Between them, the South African and Australian possess 95 international caps and a good deal more besides, but international duty and injury have, respectively, prevented the southern hemisphere pair from making their mark thus far.

“There’s a lot of competition in the back three, and two new guys in Zane and Lote,” Kearney agreed. “But it was pretty similar last year as well, with Fionn and Andy.

“It hasn’t changed too much, there’s a lot of competition there. It’s just getting the game time to show what you can do.

“So, you put your hand up, but I’ve been happy with the game time I’ve been getting recently and hopefully I can keep building on that.

“Once the guys are back fully fit, once Lote is back and Zane comes into the equation, I’m just going to have to keep pushing and try to get that spot.”

He hasn’t done badly in the opening months of the season, having started all seven games and failing to finish only the opener against the Scarlets after scoring a try.

Another touchdown followed a week later against the Ospreys yet opportunities to impress have been few and far between for the province’s wings this last two weeks as they ground out Heineken Cup wins against the Ospreys and Castres.

“We probably didn’t get too much ball out wide last weekend but it’s something that we’re working on; to get our shape out wide and try to get ball in the back three’s hands to so we can have opportunities to run.

“It’s something we’re looking to improve on this weekend [against Connacht at the RDS]. It’s something we said from the start of the season that we need to improve on, to get the ball out wide.”

Connacht have been frustrating opponents for Leinster in recent times but Kearney is liable to have fond memories of them given it was two tries in a festive derby fixture three seasons ago that provided his big break.

He is, of course, far from the only man at Leinster looking for a promotion under new coach Matt O’Connor, what with Martin Moore and Jack McGrath tearing things up in the front row, Mike McCarthy bedding down at lock and the aforementioned Kirchner and Tuqiri.

Another in that boat is Jimmy Gopperth, who has confounded commonly-held expectations by starting the first two European fixtures ahead of Ian Madigan.

Kearney has been hugely impressed.

“Jimmy is doing really well, and again at the weekend he had a good performance. When you’re battling one on one with a guy who has got great talent like Mads, it pushes your game on a bit more.

“But I think there’s going to be a lot of switching between the two guys over the coming year. It’s good for Leinster that we have two really talented guys who can jump in and play that position. It’ssomething that you just have to deal with, it’s part of the game.”

nMeanwhile, Ireland flanker Chris Henry, has signed a three year extension to his Ulster contract which will keep him at Ravenhill until the end of 2017. Henry has played for the province 109 times since his debut in 2008.