Ireland must keep evolving before RWC, says Kearney

Ireland full-back Rob Kearney said the standard of World Cup contenders is increasing across the globe and Ireland will get left behind if they don’t push on from their Six Nations triumph.

Kearney said that while they were pleased to chalk up two wins in Argentina, they know the performances were well short of the mark.

“We always try and judge ourselves by performances, while results are important,” he said.

“If, after winning the Six Nations, we are striving to be proper World Cup contenders, then you have to judge yourself on performances. So I suppose it’s between the two.

“The World Cup is still a long way away, but that’s what we’re striving to do. We want to build a squad here that can be World Cup contenders, we’ve always said that on our day, we can match or beat the best.

“But the standard is increasing right across the world. New Zealand are getting hard to beat, the English are getting strong and South Africa bashed Wales. We have to keep evolving and improving because, if we don’t, we’ll be left behind.”

Kearney is looking forward to the break as he reflects on one of his best ever campaigns.

“I’m very happy with how it went. When you get a run, injury free and keep going, I think it has been one of my best seasons.”

He said the short length of the tour to Argentina and having to twice move from their Buenos Aires base for the games in Resistencia and Tucuman, took a toll.

“It’s difficult when these are two very different areas of the world. It was nice to get to Buenos Aires for a few days, but it has been challenging.

“Any tour, when there’s a fair bit of travel; it went very quickly there was a lot of rush. We played poor enough, we turned over a lot of ball, our rucking was poor. We had a huge amount of possession, but we lost a lot of rucks and it was hard for us to build phases, keep the ball.

“Still, two from two is not a bad result for us.”