2013 ‘horror show’ keeps expectations in check

When it comes to the RBS 6 Nations, Rob Kearney has seen it, won it and even flirted with a wooden spoon.

Which means as he embarks on his seventh championship campaign in Rome this afternoon, the Leinster and Lions full-back has been around the northern hemisphere block enough times not to get carried away by all the pre-tournament hype circling the Ireland team.

Kearney, who turns 29 next month, will win his 58th Test cap at Stadio Olimpico today, two years on from a game in the same arena that he describes as “a horror show” which became a defining moment in the history of Irish rugby. That 22-15 defeat to a buoyant Italy in March 2013 signalled the end for Declan Kidney, the coach Kearney won a Grand Slam with four years earlier, and ushered in the current incumbent, on whose shoulders rest a nation’s soaring hopes for success over the next nine months, both in the Six Nations and the World Cup.